The Douai Court of Appeal increased the sentence imposed on Yanis' father-in-law to 28 years' imprisonment on Friday for the murder of the five-year-old boy, who died in 2017 during a punishment for peeing in the bathroom. bed.
During the five days of hearing, Julien Masson, sentenced at first instance to 25 years, continued to deny most of the blows and the bathing imposed in a canal in the middle of February.
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“He has changed little in his statements: he needs to invent a story so as not to collapse”,
estimated his counsel, Me Stéphane Daquo, who had pleaded for a reclassification of the facts as mortal blows, arguing that he had struck blows with no intention of killing.
“From the moment he disputed the slightest incriminating element, it is difficult to believe him when he speaks of his intentions”,
indicated for his part Me Philippe Broyart, lawyer for a civil party association.
The prosecution had requested 30 years with a security period of 20 years and five years of socio-judicial follow-up.
He was finally sentenced to 28 years for murder and violence against his partner's son, accompanied by 5 years of socio-judicial follow-up, but without a security period.
On the night of February 5 to 6, 2017, Yanis was found lying on a jacket, in soaked underwear and covered with around thirty bruises, near the unsanitary cabin in Aire-sur-La-Lys (Pas-de-Calais). ) where his mother and stepfather used to spend weekends with him.
During the first interrogations, Julien Masson had explained that the child had fallen inanimate after running along a canal in a temperature of 5 degrees, a punishment he inflicted on him for having wet the bed.
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According to the investigation, they left the shed between 12:00 a.m. and 12:30 a.m., Julien Masson following Yanis on a bicycle for several kilometers.
The child was immersed in the canal and received several violent blows, including one on the skull, causing death according to the autopsy.
At first instance, Julien Masson had tried to explain Yanis's injuries by successive
"falls"
, before admitting
"a few blows",
including
"a dry"
on the skull using a flashlight.
Sentenced to four years in prison, two of which were suspended for non-impediment of crime, the mother of the child, Emilie Inglard, had not appealed.
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