“My childhood was hell on earth, every day” says Cassandra, the sister of Amandine, who died of hunger in Hérault.

Me Paul David, partie civile pour Cassandra, l'une des filles de Sandrine Pissara. MIDI LIBRE – François Barrère

Shocking testimony this Tuesday, January 21 before the Assize Court of Hérault, where Sandrine Pissara, 54, is being tried with her partner for starving her daughter Amandine, 13, in August 2020 in Montblanc, near Pezenas. The accused, who faces life imprisonment, continues to deny having assaulted and starved her daughter.  

“If I can summarize my childhood… It was hell on earth every day. We never knew what state my mother was in”tells this Tuesday, December 21, at the Assize Court of Hérault Cassandra, one of the eight children of Sandrine Pissara, who risks life imprisonment for having committed acts of torture and barbarity on her daughter Amandine, who died at the age of 13 in Montblanc, near Pézenas, on August 6, 2020.

A dreadful family life

Aged 28, a saleswoman in a pet store, Cassandra, civil party, described in a surprisingly cheerful voice the dreadful family life in which she grew up with Ambre and Ethan, her sister and brother.

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“When we moved from Perpignan to Saint-Pargoire, I forgot a notebook in Perpignan. I was punished for three days to eat and drink in my room. I was lost. The violence started at that time, my mother started making us do housework. We got up at 5 a.m. to do housework and we got slapped, hit, and swept. Sometimes we missed the bus to school. I slept with Ethan in his room, I had to get up at night, change him, give him a bottle, so that everything would be ready in the morning. The punishments, there was no end, we just knew that he had a beginning. Our only way out was when we were 18.”

A species of omerta

During the rare interventions of social services, alerted to the traces of violence on Amandine, Sandrine Pissara prepared the children's testimonies in advance. “My mother wanted us to lie, she played on the fact that we could lose Ethan and Ambre if they were placed, and that in foster care we risked being beaten or raped. We had this feeling of having to choose between the plague and cholera.”

The President: “You preserve this kind of omerta ?” “Yes. She always told us that since we were little, we didn't doubt her word.”

She had a dismissal of the investigation

Indicted for failure to assist a person in danger, Cassandra finally benefited from a dismissal of the case, the investigation having established that she had not seen her sister Amandine since Christmas 2019. “I I doubted there would be punishments but I didn't imagine the extent of the damage.”

After Amandine's death, she came to stay with her mother and Jean-Michel Cros, her partner, for two weeks. “There wasn't really any change, I felt like nothing had happened. I didn't see my mother crying, I didn't see her sad, she had an appointment at the hairdresser the day after tomorrow, she went anyway.”

Trying to protect her little sister

“There was nothing, it was empty, a very strange atmosphere. It was like Amandine had never been in this house.”

She will also end up finding the strength to intervene to try to protect Amber, her little sister, who then becomes the target of maternal violence, after Amandine. “After the death, my mother was very protective of Ethan. She tended to be more violent with my sister. One day my mother was strangling Amber, I told her, we've already lost someone, that's enough. And I told Amber, maybe you're next. My mother needs to hit and assault someone to get her anger out.”

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