A grandfather tried in Bourg-en-Bresse (Ain) for incest with three of his granddaughters, one of whom had reported the incident through a mailbox “Butterflies”installed by an association, was sentenced on Monday, September 23, to twelve years in prison.
“No sentence can ever equal the suffering you caused to very young children who were at your mercy.”The president of the criminal court, Antoine Molinar-Min, said that this sentence, which is less than the fifteen years demanded by the Attorney General Sandra Coelho, is accompanied by five years of socio-judicial monitoring.
The 73-year-old defendant was tried behind closed doors for raping and sexually assaulting one of his granddaughters (the one who had broken the silence), who turns 13 today, and for sexually assaulting two of her cousins when they were minors.
The grandfather admitted having touched all three but denied rape. However, the court found him guilty of both charges. Following the announcement of the verdict, the lawyers for the civil parties expressed their satisfaction to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
350 mailboxes in schools
The case was particularly publicised due to the nature of the channel used by one of the granddaughters in June 2022 to report what her grandfather had been doing to her for two years.
She was 10 years old when a mailbox was installed in her primary school in Vonnas (Ain) by the association Les Papillons, whose aim is to free the voices of children who are victims of violence.
On the very day of his installation, he slipped in a small, unequivocal note: “He touched my bottom and my top and he also put his bottom on my bottom and I tried to take it off but he wouldn’t.”the girl had written in this newspaper that Agence France-Presse (AFP) was able to consult.
The decision to hold the trial behind closed doors was justified by the need, according to the court, to ” protect “ victims in the face of media hype. But it was poorly received by the civil parties. The victim’s mother finally told the press. “to understand” this decision.
For the association Les Papillons, which has 350 mailboxes in schools (from primary to secondary), this test is the “proof that children expect a helping hand”according to its president Laurent Boyet.
