Her two years of fierce struggle to save her daughter Assia, 14, from the grip of her "boyfriend" and pimp, command admiration.
Jennifer Pailhé, 33-year-old Toulouse, will be received this Tuesday at the end of the afternoon by the Secretary of State in charge of children and families, Adrien Taquet.
The opportunity to concretely illustrate the report submitted last July to the Secretary of State, according to which underage prostitution affects between 7,000 and 10,000 adolescents in France.
But above all to share concrete proposals with him, when this courageous mother has just created an association to help parents of teenage victims of pimps, Our Forgotten Teenagers.
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When we retrace the route of this sordid story, we see how Assia, 14, multiplied the major risk factors of falling into prostitution, precisely detailed in the previously cited report: placement in Child welfare (ASE), previous sexual abuse, low esteem for her body, isolation ... For her mother Jennifer, everything starts from there: from her 12 to her 14 years old, Assia is placed with her father and is touched by her grandfather. She scarifies herself. When Assia reveals to him the touching she has suffered, her mother takes her to file a complaint. Closed without follow-up. It is the beginning of a long course of reports to the authorities, like so many balls thrown against a wall. Silence, refusal, denial: no one believes or really cares about Jennifer's case.But who would take seriously this former child placed at ASE, and who gave birth to her daughter at the age of 16? When she finds out about the situation, Jennifer also asks to get custody of her daughter to protect her. She is told that she does not have
Sufficient
"family balance"
.
At the age of 14, Assia was then placed in a
“place of life”
- a place between emergency home and foster family.
On a large property where foster children dine in their own kitchen and wash their laundry separately, Jennifer comments, Assia goes to summer camp, and falls in love.
Her "boyfriend" actually becomes her pimp, who will implement a very progressive strategy of control and isolation.
The boy asks to see his private messages, has the passwords for his Snapchat account (social network, Editor's note), controls his phone directory.
Forbids him to contact his mother.
Then offers him sexy photos, and finally
"plans"
to pay for the hotel, the shopping.
In a few months, Assia ends up making up to 10 passes a day.
She is abused.
Not allowed to shower.
Sleeps outside.
But continues to be emotionally dependent on this young man - who has become his only landmark.
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In 2019, when Jennifer discovers the terrible reality by accessing her daughter's mailbox, she is herself in remand, serving an eight-year sentence - administrative slowness of justice requires. Despite the walls that separate it from the outside, it is active. Go to Vivastreet or Sexmodel type ad sites where her daughter offers her escort girl services, and more. Jennifer sees the worst possible images of Assia in "action". But keep going, because she has only one goal: to find and save her daughter. It multiplies the first reports. But what credit should be given to an inmate? The ASE notices that Assia is on the run, but says she is powerless.
In March 2020, Jennifer is released from prison and pushes her investigations further. “
I was pretending to be the client. I targeted all the Airbnbs and hotels in the area to target the place, the room. I was going to look for her on the spot.
»She discovers a prostrate, mutic teenager. At home, Jennifer confiscates her cell phone, locks it in her room. But Assia runs away again. Several times. Jennifer goes to the Youth Protection Brigade. His teenager is "
consenting
", he is told.
“She was in the grip. She could only speak to her brother, and again, under loudspeaker, ”
plague Jennifer.
“We took my statements, I spent the day there.
Yet listed for worrying disappearance, we could not find his file.
The recurring phrase was: 'territorial incompetence' ”
.
"It's your son, or him"
His relentlessness pays off.
One day, a “good fairy” rings her doorbell.
A call from an inspector of departmental security in Argenteuil (Val d'Oise).
“Today I owe him everything.
She agrees not to come into contact with her daughter anymore.
Helped by a determined magistrate from Seine-et-Marne -
"a pitbull" -
the inspector investigates and finds Assia. See the passes. In October 2020, Jennifer can get her daughter back. Also advised by a psychiatrist specializing in the phenomena of control, she changes her strategy to regain her confidence. She no longer takes his cell phone, takes him shopping. Little by little, Assia takes a step back. But in January 2021, the teenager gives birth to a baby boy - the result of a time spent with a client. In the maternity ward, under the bewildered gaze of her mother, Assia presents her offspring, by video call, to her pimp “boyfriend”. Jennifer explodes:
"it's your son, or him"
. Assia chose. Today, she has created "
a magnificent bond with her son"
, resumed her second general, and has returned to her mother's home.
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In March 2021, his pimp enters on a committal warrant - continued pre-trial detention.
He will be tried at the assizes, for the time being on charges of
"rape, forcible confinement, violence, aggravated prostitution and trafficking in human beings"
.
The legal battle is not over.
But Jennifer knows that thousands of parents are still fighting to save their children.
This summer, she founded the association “Our forgotten teenagers”.
And this Tuesday afternoon, the Toulousian will submit several ideas to Secretary of State Adrien Taquet, who is to launch a national plan to fight against underage prostitution in October.
Create “living spaces” for teenage girls who are victims of prostitution
Among them, that of creating real "places of life" for adolescent victims of prostitution.
“When they come back from a runaway, they go back to an emergency shelter, but leave, because these shelters don't make them want to stay,”
says Jennifer.
“The current living spaces are not suitable. There should be regular discussion groups, in front of competent child psychiatrists
, she pleads.
In the home, adolescent girls are very isolated and think only of finding their pimps. We would therefore need activities to take care of such as dancing, self-defense lessons, gardening. ”
Jennifer is also considering the obligation for these young girls to be represented by a lawyer or a conciliator when they are brought before the juvenile judge.
“The judge takes measures, for example child psychiatric follow-up, resumption of the link with such and such a member of the family, the prohibition of contact with such. But in three-quarters of cases, these measures are not followed by the ESA. A lawyer or a conciliator could ensure their effective implementation,
”she says.
Jennifer Pailhé will also be heard by the parliamentary group, author of the report on the prostitution of minors, submitted in July to Adrien Taquet. In the meantime, in Toulouse, she still hopes to obtain from the town hall the provision of premises for her association:
"at home, it's too dangerous for my family."