The children's judge of Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales) has maintained the placement of the fourth child of Cécile Bourgeon, a little girl born in February, while the young woman must be retried at the end of the year for the death in 2013 of her daughter Fiona.
From the birth of this child, the prosecutor of Perpignan, considering "that there was a risk for the child", had ordered that the baby be placed pending the decision of the children's judge.
The latter decided to maintain the child's placement for a period of one year. Two other children of Cécile Bourgeon are also the subject of a placement measure.
Remarried on release
The young woman today aged 32, who lives in Perpignan and remarried in favor of a release with the father of her new child, must appear shortly before the assizes of the Rhône in December 2020 for a fourth trial alongside Berkane Makhlouf.
In May 2013, Fiona, a 5-year-old girl, died of ill-treatment, facts which neither the investigation nor three successive trials have brought to light. Her mother, Cécile Bourgeon, and her companion at the time, Berkane Makhlouf, reported her disappearance before finally admitting to having buried it.
At first instance, in 2016, the Puy-de-Dôme assize court had acquitted Cécile Bourgeon for the fatal blows, contenting herself with ordering her to five years' imprisonment for pretending to be an abduction. Berkane Makhlouf had then been sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment.
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This judicial soap opera was continued in February 2018 before the Assize Court of Appeal of the Haute-Loire which had sentenced them both to 20 years' imprisonment. But at the beginning of 2019, the Court of Cassation had invalidated this verdict, referring the case to the Assises du Rhône for a fourth trial, itself postponed in April due to the Covid crisis.