Yanis' stepfather, Julien Masson, accused of having killed the child in 2017 during a punishment, had already been "
violent
" with him before, and had notably hit him with his fist, admitted for the first time the mother Emilie Inglard, Wednesday November 18 at the third day of the trial.
Read also: Death of Yanis, 5 years old: forensic scientists sweep away the thesis of a fall advanced by the accused
"
Julien Masson was sometimes abrupt with Yanis but when I made remarks, he said that Yanis was leading me in the boat and making fun of me
", she declared before the Assize Court of Pas-de-Calais.
"
He would sometimes give a punch with his fist on the head to explain something to her, so that it fits in there (...) It happened several times, it happened in the evening
" of the drama. -she strangled.
"
Yanis would pee at night because he was disturbed, he would tell her to stop doing it on purpose (...) It happened that Julien Masson watered Yanis to punish him
", the young woman recalled. .
"
Once to show him that it was cold and dangerous, he took Yanis by the arms and dipped him in the canal
."
Tried for "
intentional homicide
" on the son of his companion on the night of February 5 to 6, 2017 in Aire-sur-la-Lys and for regular violence since August 2015, Julien Masson, 34, had reiterated his thesis the day before of an accident, already battered by scientific expertise, evoking two falls of the child, in an embankment and from a bicycle.
The mother, 23 years old at the time of the facts, is on trial for not having prevented the crime.
"
Today I consider it a kind of violence, but not at the time,
" she explained to the jurors, in tears.
According to the investigation, the accused left the shed where the couple spent the weekend at around 12:30 am, taking the child to run along a nearby canal to punish him for having "
wet the bed
".
The child was found with numerous sores and bruises.
The accused said Tuesday, November 17 that he only went out to get tobacco with the child.
He recognized only a
light
"
slap
" with a flashlight on the back of the head and two or three "
small slaps
" of the finger.
“
I agree that I shouldn't have let them go
” that evening, the mother said.
Shortly before the tragedy, an argument had broken out over the child.
“
Julien was very upset.
Yanis would have told him that he wanted to see his father again
”.
A few hours later, "
when I woke up, Julien reproached Yanis for having purposely wet the bed
".
"
I did not see that he was going to hurt her
", she defended herself, explaining that her companion always lied when she noticed beatings, and that she "
drank his words
".
She described herself as "
submissive
" in her relationship, even fading into her son's education.
In the morning, forensic scientists had them swept aside the thesis of an accidental fall advanced by the accused, considering that Yanis had died of a "
head trauma
" following injuries suggestive of willful violence.
According to their expertises, the child found with about thirty bruises on the body, had also been immersed in the canal.
Read also: Pas-de-Calais: opening of the trial for the murder of Yanis, 5 years old
