The former director and a former nurse of the People & Baby nursery in Villeneuve-d’Ascq (North) will be tried on Monday 23 September in Lille for alleged violence against several children, at the centre of the investigation into private nurseries. The ogres, by Victor Castanet, published on Wednesday. Already postponed twice, the hearing, which is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. The two women are being tried for “violence without incapacity on a minor under 15 years of age by someone who has authority over the victim,” involving several children.
The former director questions the facts, her lawyer, M.my Blandine Lejeune, not wanting to say more before the hearing.
“This is not the judgment of People & Baby but of two individuals who are under suspicion”M insistsmy Alexandre Schmitzberger, who represents a family whose 2-year-old child returned from daycare with “scratches at the base of the neck” and “fingerprints suggesting an adult hand, on the arm and trunk”.
Beyond this trial, he hopes that the public debate, fueled by Victor Castanet’s book, will allow “a broader reflection (…) on the organization of these structures, (…) to ensure that this type of behavior is eradicated or at least significantly controlled”.
“Today my son is 8 years old and has psychological problems”A father who filed a civil suit accusing the nurse’s assistant of locking his son in the dark told AFP. He said the consequences were multiple: aggression, difficulties at school, fear of the dark, anxiety.
Abandoned in their cribs screaming, locked in the dark or deprived of food.
A first hearing was held in May 2023, but was postponed while further investigations were being carried out. The defence lawyers then complained of an incomplete investigation and demanded, in particular, hearings with the doctor and psychologist who regularly worked at the nursery. The hearing was then postponed for the second time, last January.
In The ogresa book that denounces the “voracity” Among the groups of private nurseries, Victor Castanet cites at length the People & Baby nursery in Villeneuve-d’Ascq, where parents claimed to have left their children screaming in their cribs, locked in the dark or deprived of food.
In a statement sent to AFP, People & Baby, whose founder and president Christophe Durieux was dismissed in the spring, said: “The practices described in the book are completely out of step with the values that [le groupe porte] Today “.
