She has always claimed her innocence. Despite the conclusions of experts believing that she alone could have committed the irreparable, this Friday, the jurors acquitted her. Esther L. was accused of having shaken the three-month-old child she was keeping in 2012 in Nanterre. This unapproved nanny, appeared since Wednesday before the Hauts-de-Seine Assize Court for willful violence resulting in permanent disability. The jurors therefore did not follow the prosecution, which had requested, for whom the accused was guilty. The Advocate General had requested eight years' imprisonment and five years of socio-judicial follow-up against this 38-year-old woman.
The drama occurred on June 6, 2012 in Nanterre.
Esther L. was 30 years old at the time.
Haitian, she had been in France for two years when she agreed to keep, by being paid illegally, little Mathis (the name has been changed), in the Petit-Nanterre district.
Irreversible sequelae
The baby's mother had returned to work eight days earlier, at the end of her maternity leave.
Failing to have been able to find a place in a nursery, the couple had entrusted the care of the little one to this thirty-something through an acquaintance.
This June 6, Esther L. takes care of the baby in the couple's home, where she also looks after her aunt's children, like every Wednesday.
A 7 year old boy, a 6 month old girl.
And Mathis.
In the afternoon, the father returns home and discovers his son asleep, on his stomach.
The nanny gone, he taps on his computer then hears the baby.
This one shakes, his legs seem stiff and his gaze plunges into space.
The father then rushes to the hospital.
That of Colombes first then Necker in Paris, where the little one is transferred three hours later.
There, the doctors are definite, the baby suffers from the syndrome of the shaken baby.
The parents filed a complaint against the nanny three days later.
The investigation established that only the wet nurse was able to shake the baby.
However, throughout the investigation as this week before the jurors of the Assize Court, this clumsy-looking woman maintained her version and denied having had the slightest violent gesture towards the child.
Today, despite an improvement in recent years, Mathis remains disabled over 80% with mental retardation, impaired vision and severe neurological disorders.