Do the recommendations of the High Authority for Health (HAS) lead doctors, then the courts, to wrongly condemn parents accused of shaking their babies? The Adikia association, which brings together some 300 families " victims of false diagnoses of ill-treatment ", is convinced of this and seized this Monday, by the voice of its lawyer Me Grégoire Etrillard, the Council of State for these recommendations to be repealed.
"I am of course against child abuse but this publication is completely excessive, even inaccurate and can cause a massive number of miscarriages of justice," warns the criminal lawyer, who today defends 70 files of parents suspected of having mistreated their child.
Read also: Shaken Baby Syndrome, “mistreatment” with irreversible consequences
Shaken Baby Syndrome or “SBS” is a “head trauma” that occurs when an adult, overwhelmed by the crying of an infant, shakes it violently. A gesture that can cause serious injuries - sometimes irreversible and fatal. There are several hundred cases in France each year, mainly affecting babies under one year old.
To diagnose this syndrome, doctors and forensic experts are based on "good practice" recommendations issued by HAS in 2011 and updated in 2017. However, for Me Etrillard, this text "does not reflect the current state of the science on the subject ” and leads to a “ too systematic ” diagnosis of a shaken baby, without taking into account other possible explanations, such as genetic diseases or falls from a low height.
We have to take the time to diagnose these children. In my case, we realized that my boy had an infection
Jules, accused of shaking his baby who died in 2013Even more worrying, according to Me Etrillard, these diagnoses are made in a "certain" manner , placing a burden on the parent or nanny in question "an irrefutable presumption of guilt" and "compelling the judges" to refer them to the courts. Results, "infants are torn from their families and placed, couples end up separating, some parents are even incarcerated before, finally being cleared a few years later" , sighs Me Etrillard.
"It has to stop," says Jules (the first name has been changed), in his forties, accused of shaking his baby who died in 2013 and who was acquitted last October. Tired, this father of two little girls recounts the police custody, five days after the burial of his son - "an absolute horror" -, the nightmares, the two suicide attempts of his wife. “We have to take the time to diagnose these children. In my case, we realized that my boy had an infection, ”he says. His case must now be tried on appeal. He faces up to 15 years in prison.
"We put everyone in the same bag"
To support his demonstration with the Council of State, Me Etrillard relied on several specialists. Thus he quotes Dr. Jean-Claude Mselati, pediatrician expert at the Court of Cassation, who affirms that these recommendations lead to an excess of diagnosis in potentially "one in two cases" . Professor Guillaume Sébire, pediatric neurologist and professor at the prestigious McGill University in Canada, makes the same observation: "As soon as there is a little blood in the brain of a baby, we put everyone in the same bag and they say it's a shaken baby. "
Equally critical, Professor Bernard Echenne, former head of neuropediatrics at the Montpellier University Hospital, criticizes the French High Authority for Health for having entrusted the drafting of these recommendations to "doctors who have never done pediatric neurology" . "It is high time that these recommendations were repealed because the justice system uses them as a real piece of legislation and this is dramatic," added the former president of the European Society of Pediatric Neurology.
Read also: Shaken baby: parents believe that justice "sequesters" their child
"Contesting these recommendations is the wrong subject," replied HAS to the association on December 19, in a statement co-signed by doctors and learned societies who participated in their writing. Anxious to defend the “scientific probity” of its experts, the organization recalled that its two texts are based on “a rigorous analysis of international scientific and medical literature” .
Me Etrillard asked to meet the Minister of Justice Nicole Belloubet to submit a draft circular to him. The lawyer also hopes that the new Minister of Health Olivier Véran, a neurologist, will be able to quickly take up the subject. Asked, the HAS "did not wish to speak" , the appeal has not yet been "notified" .