ASE trial in Châteauroux: the “horror” experienced by dozens of children is revealed

This Monday, an extraordinary trial opened in Châteauroux. Nineteen people are being tried for having welcomed, without approval, children from Child Welfare Services.

“Out of the ordinary”. This is the adjective most used to describe the trial of 18 people – the 19th defendant having died last April – tried since Monday, October 14 and for five days at the criminal court of Châteauroux, in the Centre-Val de Loire region. They are appearing, among other things, for violence, undeclared work in an organized gang, receiving minors without prior declaration, administering harmful substances or using forged documents, and risk up to ten years of imprisonment.

For seven years, from 2010 to 2017, the Social Assistance for Children of the North entrusted dozens of children to the “Children and Well-being” reception structure based in Indre, in return for compensation that would amount to at least 630,000 euros over the seven years – never declared to the tax authorities, Radio France points out. A structure that did not have the necessary approval.

Residents in Indre, Creuse and Haute-Vienne, the foster families who were entrusted with the children also did not have any approval. Worse still, some had even had their first approval withdrawn, according to the investigation unit of Radio France and Mediapart, after having been convicted of… sexual assault on minors.

The hospitalization of one of the children at the origin of the affair

In addition to the lack of approval, many children placed in care have been subjected to violence even though they were placed by what is still called the DDAS. From forced labor to abuse, including drug overdoses and humiliation, “these children have been violent, insulted, mistreated and silence is king,” deplored Monday at the opening of the trial, one of the victims' lawyers, Myriam Guedj-Benayoun.

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Speaking to BFMTV, the lawyer wondered: “How is it possible that no one came to see where the children were staying ?”, pointing out the fact that some were housed “in completely unsanitary caravans, without water or electricity” nor heating".

&At the origin of the affair, Mathias' hospitalization for a "bicycle accident". He now claims that it was more of a violent attack. While he says he was subjected to daily forced labor (sheep shearing, corn harvesting, harvesting, etc.), he explains that he was "pushed onto a metal pole" and having received “a dozen kicks in the head” afterwards, which earned him six days in a coma.

ASE absent from the dock

It was by refusing to return to his tormentor that he finally brought to light this network which could have potentially claimed around sixty victims, as reported byLa Nouvelle République. With Mathias, Angelina, Kamilia, Maeva and Damien. There are at least five victims who want to testify during this trial.

Today, the victims regret that no child welfare official is in the dock. “This is the first time that a trial has directly pointed the finger at ASE,” the president of the Innocence in Danger association told AFP, echoed by Le Figaro . According to her, with this trial, “we have the opportunity to burst a gigantic abscess and offer a second chance to children who have lived through horror”. Because behind this case, it is also the crisis that has been affecting child welfare for several years that is being highlighted. Due to a lack of resources, money, foster families, educators, and faced with ever-increasing numbers of children in place, the ASE struggles to hold the bar.

“We would have liked the Child Welfare Service, the DDAS as everyone calls it, to be there to express itself, but it is not there, just as it is not there “since the beginning,” laments lawyer Myriam Guedj-Benayoun to AFP, who nevertheless admits to Radio France: “The ASE is the public authorities. Pointing the finger at them in this trial is taking the risk of causing the entire child protection system to collapse. I don't know if our institutions are ready for that.”