A woman who killed her 7-year-old son with a knife in May 2017 in Sommières (Gard) was declared Thursday, January 18 criminally irresponsible by the investigative chamber of the Nîmes court of appeal.
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The 50-year-old was hospitalized automatically and was prohibited from meeting members of her family, including her eldest son, and from appearing in Gard and Hérault for a period of 20 years.
The decision of criminal irresponsibility rendered Thursday is in accordance with psychiatric expertise.
Only one doctor, out of the five solicited in this affair, concluded that there was an "
impairment of discernment
" which could have led to a judgment at the assizes.
The other four experts noted an “
abolition of discernment
” leading to penal irresponsibility not allowing judicial sanction.
Advocate General Alexandre Rossi had requested criminal irresponsibility during a hearing on January 27.
“
It is the trial of an infanticide mother who committed the unspeakable.
The crime of crimes
”, underlined the representative of the general prosecutor's office.
“
That night I moved at three in the morning.
The speech of this lady, this mother of a family was incomprehensible,
”he added.
"
We do not condemn the mad in a civilized society
", had pleaded the lawyer of the mother infanticide, Me Philippe Expert.
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Around 2 a.m. on May 23, 2017, the emergency services, warned by a relative of the mother, had discovered in this woman's apartment little Mathéo lying on his bed, lifeless and bleeding.
They could only see the death of the child.
Placed in custody by the gendarmes of the Vauvert (Gard) company, the woman could not provide a reason for her action and had shown herself inconsistent in her words.
She was quickly hospitalized automatically.
"
The autopsy proved that the little boy had died of a throat cut and a massive hemorrhage
", recalled during the hearing the president of the court of appeal, Christophe Teissier.
“
I can't explain why I killed Mathéo.
I had no reason to do it,
"said the mother suffering from psychiatric problems"
old and known
"according to a psychiatrist.
The woman diagnosed with bipolar for several years no longer took her treatment, regularly evoked the end of the world, saw extraterrestrials or "
balls of light
".
The day before the tragedy, she had not responded to a medical summons during which she was to receive an injection of neuroleptics.