"It is a family marked by madness and death".
This observation is that of the expert-psychiatrist Isabelle Teillet, responsible for evaluating the mental state of this 69-year-old woman who slit the throat of her 32-year-old grandson in a state of schizophrenic delirium, on October 31, 2017 in Combs- the-City (Seine-et-Marne).
Justice has ruled that the sixty-year-old is not responsible for criminal justice but must still decide, at the end of the investigation, whether she will be interned under duress or whether she can continue to live surrounded by her children.
It is 9:20 a.m., place de l'An-2000 in Combs-la-Ville on October 31, 2017, when a neighbor sees a man in underwear with a throat hurt in the elevator in the second basement. Shocked, this witness calls for help but needs a network to phone, he goes to the pharmacy to sound the alert. Too late, when the firefighters and the Samu arrive, Ibrahim succumbs to serious injuries. The police follow the traces of blood that lead to his apartment on the fourth floor. The officials find his mother, Ramatoulaye, who assures us that she saw nothing. There is still blood in the hallway and in the bedroom. The police get their hands on a suitcase full of knives and sharp objects.
This woman lives in this accommodation with her two sons after being evicted from her home.
Samba and Ibrahim took turns watching their unbalanced mother.
The first had just left for work and Ibrahim had gone to bed to rest after a night of toil.
The findings make it possible to understand that Ibrahim was attacked with two stab wounds, carried to the neck while he was asleep on his bed.
Assailed by fits of delirium and persecution
This woman has suffered from serious psychiatric disorders for a long time. In her house, she had torn all the electrical cables of the devices to, according to her, "fight against their evil waves" and had degraded the walls to "repel attacks from outside". She is prone to fits of delirium and paranoia. She also suffers from hearing problems and hardly eats. In the past, she has killed her sons twice, one with a knife and the other with a box cutter. It was for this reason that her children, who were suspicious of her, had stored all the sharp objects in this suitcase.
This Senegalese woman arrived in France in 1974 to get married.
She had ten children before separating from her husband at the end of the 2000s and moving to a house in Vaux-le-Pénil, near Melun.
She was brought up by a stepmother who beat her, which would have formed the breeding ground for her failing psyche.
Two of her children, like her, suffered from mental illness and investigations were opened for neglect of a minor.
Her eldest daughter, after being interned many times, killed herself by throwing herself from a bridge over a railway line.
Another of his children is still hospitalized in psychiatry in Val-de-Marne.
"This family has paid a high price for the lack of support"
Before the examining magistrate, when she was not silent, Ramatoulaye contested everything. The expert psychiatrist Vincent Mahé makes a final diagnosis: "Psychosis, schizophrenia, hallucination and persecution". He considers that his discernment is abolished. A second opinion carried out by Dr Isabelle Teillet confirms and adds "that we never see an identical case again". She explains that the lack of care for this woman considerably worsened her clinical picture. “A low dose of neuroleptic would have made it possible to avoid this tragedy, but the problem remains that this woman is excessively dangerous. And this family has paid a high price for this lack of support, ”she says.
The two experts agree on one thing: Ramatoulaye is under treatment for life on pain of relapse. The two doctors recall that she can, at the slightest sign, be hospitalized under duress. The Advocate General believes that the 60-year-old should be interned. She recalls that she is "excessively dangerous" and adds that "the family support seems fragile to her". The counsel of this woman, Me Jérôme Karsenti, does not share this vision of things. “There is no need to lock people up to treat them,” he summarizes.
At the helm, the murderous mother does not want to say anything.
But her son, Issa, who has lived with her since 2019, confides all the suffering and ambiguity of this conflict of loyalty.
“It's quite difficult to live with.
I am Ibrahim's brother and our mother's son, he says.
We are living in a paradox.
We were angry with our mother and felt sorry for her at the same time.
Ibrahim was the last of his boys, he was his favorite.
She gave him life and finally it was also she who took it from him.
It is a tragic situation which causes great pain.
We were very angry.
Finally, I decided to watch over her.
At first I was on the alert and anxious.
Today, we are living in a sort of idyllic situation with our mother thanks to the treatment and her medical follow-up.
"
"Today, we all feel guilty"
The children explain the reasons which led them to leave their mother without treatment during all these years before the tragedy. She lived alone in her house. Her children brought her something to eat. To "break the curse", they had considered making him meet a marabout. “It is not out of African superstition or because of a belief in a maraboutage, adds Issa. It is the example of our big sister who benefited from a psychiatric follow-up which scalded us. She had been interned many times and ended up committing suicide. "
Her sister, Kadi, also confides in the mistrust she felt at the time.
“We didn't want to see our mother go down the drain of psychiatry.
At the time, we were lost.
We didn't know where to turn, she says.
Today we all feel guilty.
We should have done otherwise.
"
Their sister Abi confirms "that they paid dearly for their fear of psychiatry, but that today it is out of the question to take the slightest risk".
The deliberation will be delivered on Wednesday 12 May.