The death of little Louna, in March 2017, as a result of shaken baby syndrome, could only have been caused by her father, estimated Thursday March 14 before the Paris Assize Court, the representative of the prosecution, who requested seven years in prison against him, and consequently proposed the acquittal of his co-accused, the baby's grandfather.
Since Wednesday, the jurors must determine who, the father or the grandfather, committed the fatal violence against the infant.
Sébastien D., 35 years old, and his father Didier D., 61 years old (who hosted the couple and the child at his home) are the only adults to have been in Louna's presence on the evening of February 27, 2017, before the mother did not sound the alarm around 10:40 p.m.
However, throughout the debates, the two men constantly affirmed their innocence, despite the president's numerous attempts to get one or the other to confess.
“We all hoped that the truth would be told to us
,” sighed the attorney general, Annabelle Philippe, who however said she formed a
“conviction”
during the trial, that of the grandfather’s innocence.
According to the investigators, he could only have committed the violence over an extremely short period of time (around two minutes), when he had just returned from work, the parents were present in the adjacent room, and that Louna was not crying.
The accused therefore had no reason to be angry with her, she observed.
Now,
“if it’s not one, it’s the other.
This is what the objective elements of the file require you to say
,” insisted the magistrate to the attention of the jury, recalling that the fatal shaking gesture had taken place according to the expert opinions between 5:45 p.m. and 10:40 p.m., and that the father had was just alone with his daughter that day between 5:45 p.m. and 10:36 p.m.
“Unbearable”
Sébastien D. was certainly described by all the actors in this case as a
“daddy, loving, present, involved”
, and no one reported violence on his part, she conceded.
But he worked a lot and was tired, especially since he had recently had an epileptic attack.
We can therefore
“completely imagine and understand that such fatigue could lead to an act of voluntary, impulsive violence”
, according to the prosecutor.
Beyond the facts,
“there is denial, and the fact of having allowed her father to be accused, it is difficult to understand
,” she observed.
It happens that some accused
“self-persuade”
of not having committed the acts because they are so
“unbearable”
that confessing would lead to a
“collapse of the personality”
, she explained.
Defense attorneys are scheduled to make their case Friday morning.
The jury will then retire to deliberate.