Two former employees of a People&Baby daycare center were sentenced on Monday, October 7, in Lille to 10 months in prison for violence against children, a case tried behind closed doors in the midst of a media debate about the dysfunctions of some private daycare centers.
The former director of this nursery in Villeneuve-d’Ascq, on the outskirts of Lille, was found guilty of violence against three children and was also sentenced to a ban on carrying out any activity in contact with minors for three years. The former nurse, found guilty of violence against eight children, was sentenced to five years of prohibition from carrying out any activity in contact with minors. Both women were absent from Monday’s hearing.
The court went beyond the searches for the first, against whom the prosecution had requested six months of suspended prison on September 23, but it fell short for the nurse, with the prosecution having requested twelve months of suspended prison.
The defendants were prosecuted for intentional, physical and psychological violence, without incapacity, against nine children in total.
The civil parties described food deprivation, humiliation, solitary confinement and some alleged physical abuse.
The trial took place after the release of Ogres by Víctor Castanet, an investigation that denounces the model low cost from several private daycare groups, particularly People & Baby.
“Psychological disorders »
The journalist went to court promising to provide support to the families. “This trial is evidently emblematic because it reveals the dysfunctions of this group and, more broadly, of a certain number of groups in this sector”declared before the numerous cameras present.
However, the civil parties recalled that this trial was not that of the People & Baby group. “Here there is no talk of revenge, stoning or media recovery”underline Mmy Patrick Lambert. Represents a family with two children who denounces “psychological abuse, isolation, poor nutrition,” but also suspicions of physical violence, a child who has “She was found with a bump on her forehead.”.
“Today my son is 8 years old and has psychological problems”A father who filed a civil lawsuit also explained to Agence France-Presse and accuses the auxiliary nurse of having locked his son in the dark. According to him, the consequences are multiple: aggression, difficulties at school, fear of the dark, anxiety.
The daycare sector, under pressure, has been facing for several years a critical shortage of professionals and dysfunctions attributed to a complex financing method with considered effects ” pervert “.
