The ordeal of Hyana, six years old, a little girl martyred by her stepfather and her mother

For fifteen years that she has worked in pediatrics, Gaëlle Dupuy has treated wounds and fractures.

This rainy morning of December 30, 2017, the 35-year-old nurse assisted a patient who was awaiting a consultation at the Jacques-Coeur hospital in Bourges (Cher), when she saw three women arriving from the emergency room.

One, not very tall, a little round, dark veil covering her hair, holds a child in her arms.

Wrapped in a blanket, unconscious, very stiff, the little girl is in a catastrophic state of health which necessitates placing her immediately in intensive care.

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While taking off his T-shirt and his sweatpants, the nurse observed “bruises on the left ankle and on the right thigh, bites on the face, trunk and arm (…) traces of burns on the neck and hair tears, ”she explained to investigators.

This tortured little body will haunt Gaëlle Dupuy for a long time, to the point that she will develop post-traumatic stress syndrome.

The three women, including the one who filed the child under a false name, have already left the hospital.

Hyana had been taken to Jacques-Coeur hospital in Bourges before being transferred urgently to the University Hospital of Tours, where she died on January 16, 2018 without regaining consciousness.

PhotoPQR / Le Berry Républicain / Stéphanie Para

Hyana was 6 years old.

She loved cycling with her grandparents on the country lanes of the Cher, vacations in their house in Morlaix (Finistère), and the cartoon “Frozen”.

According to her teacher from Cour-Chertier school, who had her in the large kindergarten section during the year 2016-2017, the girl with long light brown hair and brown eyes was "calm, attentive, interested, shy but playful ”.

She was looking forward to going back to first grade with her blue satchel with pink flowers to learn to read and count.

Hyana will never be 7 years old.

Urgently transferred to the University Hospital of Tours, she died there on January 16, 2018, two days before her birthday, without regaining consciousness.

In question, "cerebral ischemic lesions", aggravated by "a delay in seeking care of several hours", concludes the autopsy report.

The examination also notes that the child has suffered horrific violence.

The list of 32 lesions gives nausea: 14 bites, a burn 7 centimeters long on the back of the neck, fractures to the wrists, forearms, hands and fingers, broken teeth… “During the last weeks of his life, the girl must have been in great pain, permanently, ”said the medical examiner, evaluating her suffering to the maximum (seven on a scale of seven).

In the end, the pain was so bad that the child couldn't even sleep.

Neither her stepfather nor her mother call for help when she is convulsing

Hyana's martyrdom takes place in the secrecy of 6, rue du Groupe-Liberation-Nord.

Apartment 1560 is on the landing of the fifth and last floor of this freestone building in the northern districts of Bourges.

It is here, in this F3 where the light only works in the kitchen, the bathroom and the toilets, that she lives with her mother, Noémie Poman, 22, and her stepfather, Hamza Boussalmi, 24 years old, released from prison in March 2017. Followed for many years by social services, Noémie was an immature teenager, who became a mother at 15, who ran away from home.

He, addicted to vodka and cannabis, has already spent a third of his life in detention, especially for violence.

On the evening of December 29, around midnight, Hamza shakes Hyana brutally and slaps her as she continues to play on her tablet as he told her to stop.

He is a man of almost 1.90 meters, young and strong, she a kid of 1.20 meters for 21 kilos.

When he squeezes her neck, Hyana convulses then loses consciousness.

But neither Hamza nor Noémie called for help.

On the other hand, they bring in successively Farida, Hamza's mother, and Dawoud, her younger brother.

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While Hyana lies on her back in the living room, they discuss, hesitate.

Noémie, in particular, refuses to go to the hospital, according to other witnesses.

They put the little one in a safe side position and awkwardly put her on oxygen with a bottle belonging to Farida.

However, none of the four adults in the apartment make the decision that might have saved Hyana.

They wrap her in a blanket and transport her to the home of Boussalmi parents, where she ends up the night, with dried blood on the corner of her mouth.

It is finally the next morning that Noémie, pushed by Farida and Myriam, Hamza's sister, abandons her daughter in the emergency room.

To the staff, she gives a false identity, before fleeing to Toulouse with her companion.

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Arrested two days later, the couple was tried last January by the Assize Court of Cher for "acts of torture and barbarism on a minor under 15 years of age by ascendant resulting in death without intention of giving it".

He as an author, she as an accomplice.

At their side also appeared Farida, Dawoud and Myriam for "non-assistance to a person in danger" and "non-denunciation of ill-treatment inflicted on a minor".

In the large cold room of the Bourges court, several witnesses brought Hyana's memory to life.

"A funny little girl," said a social worker who had followed her, sobs in her voice.

"A pretty little face ... She loved her mom's hugs."

I saw her enter school, kindergarten.

She was very happy, happy.

She wanted to learn, to have classmates and girlfriends ... ”, continues the witness.

At Cour-Chertier nursery school, we remember a child "calm, attentive, interested, shy but playful".

LP / Arnaud Dumontier

This heartbreaking trial was also an opportunity to establish everyone's responsibilities.

Of course, it was Hamza Boussalmi's blows that killed the girl.

Raised himself in a very violent climate, the young man with a nervous approach and crude language is "the first culprit", estimated the general counsel, emphasizing his "psychopathic" personality and his lack of questioning.

But by hiding what was happening under her roof, Noémie was an accomplice.

"The little girl faced two adults: one who tortures her, one who keeps her available to her executioner," asserted the magistrate.

Are they the only ones responsible?

Not for associations for the defense of children's rights, civil parties to the trial, who pointed out the dysfunctions of social services.

In mid-June 2017, Yazid, Hyana's younger brother, was placed in foster care after a doctor reported his multiple bruises.

In the context of an educational assistance procedure, a children's judge, however, estimated, at the beginning of July, that "there is no evidence in Hyana's case in favor of the violence suffered".

The girl then spends a peaceful summer with her maternal grandparents in La Guerche-sur-l'Aubois, 45 kilometers from Bourges.

Noémie, who had made a commitment to the magistrate to live there as well, did not respect her word: she quickly took the tangent with her spouse.

Then everything speeds up.

On August 20, Noémie came to pick up her daughter from her parents.

They oppose it.

She calls in the gendarmes.

She has the right, it is she who has parental authority.

Then she drops out of school Hyana, who only spends a day and a half in first grade.

On October 3, 2017, after several reports and a hearing in which Noémie appears without her daughter, the judge this time ordered her placement with the Childhood, Health and Family Department of Cher.

Three days later, the police from the Bourges police station accompany the child welfare services to Noémie Poman's home at around 3 p.m. to pick up the little girl.

As they did not get an answer, they went to the address of Hamza Boussalmi's family, a few kilometers away.

From the electric gate of the pavilion, the police can see the garage door open and several parked cars.

They ring, but do not go further.

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"Taking into account the neighborhood not very inclined to discussion and given the instructions of the public prosecutor, we leave the premises and return to the service", it is written in black and white in the minutes.

On October 16, the police moved a second time to 6, rue du Groupe-Liberation-Nord, without further success.

It will be all, or almost.

For the next ten weeks, when Hyana went through an ordeal in Apartment 1560, the police sent out three summons.

Before closing the investigation, January 2, 2018.

By this date, Hyana was already hospitalized in a desperate state.

“It's a shame, ton Rodolphe Costantino, lawyer for the association Enfance et Partition.

Social services and the police need to understand once and for all that time matters when it rains.

After the affair of little Marina, who died of abuse in 2009, we said "Never again!"

», And yet, since then, history has repeated itself endlessly.

"

The council is now considering taking the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

For his part, Jonathan Levy, lawyer of Childhood Capital, points to the deficiencies of the State in the protection of children.

"Why did you leave her with her executioner while her brother was in care?"

In addition, the maternal grandparents had reported to the judge traces of beatings on the little girl, in August 2017. When we are told that everything was done to save Hyana, it is false.

"

The illusion that our society can protect its children

Contacted on multiple occasions, the police and social services of Bourges refused to give us any explanations.

In an email, Michel Autissier, president of the departmental council of Cher, provides "full support to child protection professionals, who have not failed in this complex situation", and condemns "the attitude of parents, who did everything to remove this child from the judge's injunctions ”.

Joël Garrigue, the public prosecutor of Bourges, explains, for his part, that “of course, when a child dies, we say to ourselves that we should have done better.

But when we look at the unfolding of events, each of the actors did what he had to when he had to ”.

After investigation, the defender of rights did not find any shortcomings.

There would therefore be no manifest fault.

Yet a 6-year-old girl was killed.

What died with Hyana is also the illusion that our society can protect its children.

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On January 25, the Cher Assize Court sentenced Hamza Boussalmi and Noémie Poman to thirty and fifteen years respectively, with a two-thirds security sentence.

Justice has been served.

Three days earlier, a little boy died from his injuries at Tours hospital, where Hyana died.

Victim of "repeated violence", he was abandoned on the landing of his building by his stepfather and his mother, who have since been indicted and imprisoned.

His name was Dayen and he was 5 years old.