This Wednesday afternoon, at the Nantes judicial court, a 50-year-old man was on trial for having been physically and psychologically violent with her two children. A brother and sister who, for several years, denounced their father’s behavior. They alerted the adults around them: their teachers, supervisors, psychomotor therapist, principal education advisor and their mother, who is separated from the father. These two children talk about slaps on the back of the head during homework, kicks in the buttocks, demeaning comments: “you’re rubbish, you’re stupid”. And even a very violent episode: seven slaps in a row on the little boy as punishment for fighting with a friend at school.
They are now 10 and 12 years old and are still traumatized, says Simon Cluzeau, their lawyer. “There were physical and psychological repercussions. A generalized feeling of sadness, guilt, permanent fear. Stomach aches, difficulty falling asleep”. However, on the stand, the father denies it outright, speaks of a manipulative mother who would have turned their children against him. He minimizes the violence. “I’ve scolded them before. I’ve raised my voice. Maybe once, I grabbed my daughter’s ear, without pulling it. But I don’t hit them!” The public prosecutor and the three judges in charge of this case do not believe a word of it. He was sentenced to a one-year suspended prison sentence, withdrawal of parental authority and obligation to be followed by a psychologist.
More than 5,500 cases of domestic violence judged each year in Nantes
This case of domestic violence is one among many others at the Nantes judicial court. So many others. And more and more every year. “We are handling twice as many cases involving domestic violence as we did seven years ago,” specifies Renaud Gaudeul, public prosecutor of Nantes. Today, more than 5,500 files of this type are processed per year in Nantes. Men who are violent towards their partners or their children, There are people tried every day at the Nantes court. There are even seven hearings per month exclusively devoted to domestic violence.
There are more cases being brought to court, in particular because victims of violence speak more, denounce more than before. “We have women who, before, did not cross the doors of a police or gendarmerie service. Today, they do,” says Renaud Gaudeul. The increase in cases of abuse required a reorganization at the Nantes judicial court. “We created a unit dedicated exclusively to handling this type of procedure. And our wish, with the president of the court, was to have magistrates specialized in these issues. There are six of them. They are the ones who handle these procedures every day. Whether on duty, at the prosecution, but also during hearings.” On November 25, 2024, the international day against violence against women, the Nantes court also organized an awareness day on the impact of domestic violence on the physical and psychological health of female victims.
