Mélinda, died at 19 months: 25 years in prison for the stepfather, 18 years for the mother

It is a verdict which marks three years of suffering for the father of Mélinda, who died of scalding in May 2016, in Neuf-Mesnil, in the North.

This Monday, the Assize Court of Douai sentenced the stepfather of the girl, who died before his eyes after 17 hours of ordeal, to 25 years of criminal imprisonment for "acts of barbarism", announced the lawyers of the civil parties to AFP.

Mélinda's mother was sentenced to 18 years in prison for having allowed her daughter to suffer and die, sprayed by her companion with hot water which injured 80% of her body.

The man who was hosting the couple at the time of the tragedy - sentenced for the rape of his niece - was sentenced to four years in prison for failing to provide assistance to the child.

The three defendants, described as evolving in a breeding ground of misery, in particular intellectual and financial, did not call for help until the day after the tragedy, despite the girl's howling and vomiting.

"She was red and bloated"

The stepfather of the child, aged 21 at the time of the facts, admitted his guilt at the hearing.

He would have given him a bath using boiling water, the temperature of which was around “65 degrees”, according to the lawyer for the father of the child, separated from the mother of his daughter, as reported by France Bleu.

“She was screaming […] She threw up and it was her mother who cleaned up.

She was red and bloated.

They put moisturizer on her.

The next day, when they took off his diaper, the skin left with it, ”was also indignant the lawyer of the civil party, pointing the finger at the previous mistreatment that the stepfather would have subjected to Mélinda, moreover followed by social services, whose action has been criticized.

A visit to social services the same day

A visit, made the same day to the home by an educator, had led to the conclusion that the mother of the child, then 31 years old, was not able to take care of it, but the latter had refused that the Mélinda's grandmother gets her back, according to France 3.

France Bleu also relates that the mother, prosecuted for "deprivation of care resulting in death", had received three suspended prison sentences for having violated another of her daughters a few years earlier.

The latter, born before Mélinda, had died at the age of 20 months, after an accidental fall for which her godfather was allegedly responsible.

During the hearing before the North Assize Court, the mother was described as brutal and manipulative.

According to France 3, the father-in-law's lawyer highlighted the profile of a man with a deficient IQ of 56, when the attorney general mainly sketched that of a jealous accused, who took pleasure in mistreating the child .