“
My case is a case law
”, rejoiced Jérémy Garamond.
More than 30 years after the events, this father has obtained justice against stable manager José Bruneau de La Salle, convicted of "
sexual assault on a minor under the age of 15
".
For several years, the victim, 41 years old and father of two children, claimed to have suffered between 12 and 15 years of touching during trips in the car of this friend of his father.
He also said he was woken up one morning in 1990, in the family home, and discovered the horse owner masturbating him.
He becomes aware of the facts very late, when the limitation period - twenty years for sexual offenses - has already passed.
He then decides to initiate civil proceedings.
No investigation, only testimony
Indeed, article 2226 of the Civil Code provides that the prescription, in the event of liability arising from a sexual assault on a minor, is calculated “
from the consolidation of the damage
”.
In other words, the starting point of the prescription is calculated from the moment when the state of health of the victim is fixed, “
the damage stabilized
”, explains his lawyer, Maître Olivier Pardo.
The judges thus have a sovereign power of appreciation to evaluate the temporality of the prescription.
Read alsoJacques de Saint Victor: “Plea for an unloved prescription”
In the conviction of José Bruneau de La Salle, no prior police investigation was required.
The only testimony of the victim was supported by the expertise of a psychiatrist, attesting to the psychological trauma.
The existence of other charges against the condemned also weighed in the court decision.
In 2018, Grégory Pieux, son of Christophe Pieux, living legend of obstacle courses, also filed a complaint against José Bruneau de La Salle with the Paris public prosecutor.
He accused the equestrian figure, then 72 years old, of sexual assault when he was only 13 years old.
“
Today, anyone who has been the victim of sexual assault and who would be prescribed on the judicial and criminal levels, will now be able to attack in civil matters
”, welcomed Jérémy Garamond at the microphone of BFMTV.
