“
Twelve years ago,
after the little Marina affair
, we all said 'never again'
”, recalls Martine Brousse, president of the association La Voix de l'Enfant, which formed part. civil to the trial of little Hyana, who died in 2018 as a result of torture inflicted by her mother, Noémie Poman, and her companion, Hamza Boussalmi.
The couple, whose trial opened Monday, January 18 before the Assize Court of Cher, is accused of "
acts of torture and barbarism on a minor of fifteen years by ascendant having resulted in death
" and faces life imprisonment.
Three other people, Hamza Boussalmi's mother, sister and brother, are also being prosecuted for failing to assist a person in danger.
Read also: New alarm call on child protection
One evening in December, in 2017, the emergency room of the Bourges Jacques Coeur hospital saw a 22-year-old woman arrive, accompanied by two other women, carrying the frail body of a little girl.
They drop the child off and immediately disappear.
The girl is covered with multiple bruises, bite marks, burns and has an intracranial hematoma.
She was immediately transferred to the hospital in Tours, in Indre-et-Loire, where she died on January 16, 2018, after fifteen days in a coma.
In total, more than thirty-two lesions are noted by the forensic doctor, specifies
Le Parisien
.
A few days later, the woman who had deposited the child is found while she tries to flee with her companion to Toulouse: it is Noémie Poman, the mother of the girl, Hyana.
The mother and the stepfather return the guilt
Noémie Poman was 15 when she got pregnant.
Little Hyana was born on January 18, 2011, to an unknown father.
A few months later, Noémie gives birth to a second child, Yazid.
When she meets Hamza Boussalmi, she says "
having love at first sight
" and quickly finds herself "
in his grip
", she said on Monday, on the first day of the trial.
Aged only 22 and 24, Noémie and Hamza decide to get married in front of an imam.
This is when Hyana's ordeal begins.
"
The neighbors did not hear, the violence was such that the child no longer cried, she no longer reacted, everything was so violent
", reports the president of La Voix de l'Enfant, stressing that "
the silence of the mother as well as the entourage questions
”.
Monday, the mother of the child, accused of complicity, claimed to have wanted, by her silence, to protect her ex-companion, already condemned several times by justice for theft and violence against a minor under fifteen, but also by “
Fear of the reactions
” of her ex-spouse.
Contacted by
Le Figaro
, Hamza Boussalmi's lawyer, Me Georges Parastatis, defends himself: “
We want to put everything on Mr. Boussalmi's back, but I do not think he is responsible for all the evils.
It was the meeting of these two people that resulted in this dismal event
”.
Child welfare dysfunction
“
Child protection could not do anything, it failed.
We let a child die when, if we had protected her, she would still be alive today,
”laments Martine Brousse of the association La Voix de l'Enfant.
Hyana's family was indeed well known to child protection services.
In June 2017, Hyana's little brother, Yazid, was placed in foster care after a doctor reported several bruises on the little boy's body.
Nothing being reported about Hyana, the latter remains alone with her mother and stepfather.
But once placed, Yazid tells the family that takes care of him that Hyana is also a victim of abuse, designating her stepfather as the executioner.
In October 2017, several reports indeed indicated that Hyana had also suffered violence.
This time, the judge orders his placement.
But the mother refuses and decides to take the child out of school.
The police services and those of the Child and Family Health Department (DESF) repeatedly come to his home, but each time leave empty-handed: "
They rang the bell several times but, as no one answered, they left
" indignant the president of La Voix de l'Enfant, for whom “
this affair clearly highlights the dysfunctions of justice and social assistance to children
”.
Contacted by
Le Figaro
, the president of the Child and Family Health Department (DESF) assured that social services had "
in no case been faulty in the case
", denouncing a "
game of cat and mouse between the police, social services, mother and grandparents
”of the girl. "
We mobilized but in vain: each time the mother gave the agreement to make the visit but then the child was not there or else she disappeared in nature
", explains the DESF, for whom it is above all "
the irresponsibility of parents and family which led to the tragedy
".