The body of a 7-year-old child was found partially frozen in an apartment in Perpignan, Thursday September 14, 2023. His father was placed in pre-trial detention, while his uncle and grandmother are under judicial supervision.
[Updated September 17, 2023 at 12:18 p.m.] Thursday September 14, the body of a 7-year-old child was found partly frozen in a bathtub in an apartment in Perpignan. A judicial investigation was opened after this macabre discovery. The child’s father and uncle were taken into custody on Thursday, while their mother, the boy’s grandmother, was also taken into custody on Friday (September 15). Saturday September 16 in the evening, the public prosecutor of Perpignan, Jean-David Cavaillé, requested the indictment of the father, aged 28, for “murder of a minor under 15 years old”, concerning his son, and for “attempted murder”, against his daughters, aged 3 and 4, indicates Le Figaro.
The victim’s father was placed in pre-trial detention on Sunday September 17, indicates France info. The little boy’s uncle and paternal grandmother were indicted for failure to report a crime and were placed under judicial supervision. When the 7-year-old’s lifeless body was found, it showed significant traces of violence, like what was found on his two young sisters, who had been dropped off at the hospital by their uncle. Medical examinations “show multiple injuries on the body and face,” said the prosecutor. The child’s autopsy will take place Monday, September 18. “Psychological support […] has been put in place for the benefit of the maternal grandmother and the mother of the children,” Jean-David Cavaillé said in a press release.
The police intervened in the apartment of the Peupliers residence, in Perpignan, after being notified by the funeral directors who had been contacted by the father of the child earlier in the day. The man, aged 33, reportedly sought information on how to bury his son. It was also the victim’s death certificate sent by the father to the funeral directors which would have tipped off the company. The doctor supposed to have written the certificate thus indicated to the funeral directors that he had never completed the document in question, according to details from Le Parisien.
Still according to the Ile-de-France newspaper, the police had to use a battering ram to enter the apartment. Once in the apartment, they found the father, who was conscious, but had a cable around his neck that could be that of a drill. His hands were also partly tied behind his back. The man is known to the police for domestic violence, but has never been convicted. A local shopkeeper told BFM TV that she had already seen the boy with “a big bruise on his face”, while a neighbor said she heard screams coming from the apartment.
Two girls, aged 3 and 4, and identified as the victim’s sisters, were hospitalized on the afternoon of September 14. It was their uncle who allegedly took them to the hospital Thursday afternoon. The father had obtained custody of the children because their mother has a personality disorder and is considered dangerous for her children, indicates BFM TV. The children were first placed in care, before the judge considered that the father could regain custody of them. But the mother “always had links with her children,” said Me Ilyacine Maallaoui, lawyer for the mother of the three children.
