She wears black joggers, sports sneakers, thick glasses. Despite his beard, the 20-year-old defendant maintains a teenage look. His mother accompanies him. On Tuesday, the boy was summoned to the Thionville Criminal Court. Her virtual screen-to-screen relationship with a 13-year-old boy took a very real legal turn.
In March 2020, at the beginning of the covid pandemic, in full confinement, the young man had just turned 18. He lives with his parents in Moyeuvre-Grande, in the Orne valley. He wanders around on social networks, invites himself to an online platform and starts chatting with a girl. He lives near Tours and doesn’t mind about his age. Exchanges quickly become sexual. He sends her pictures of himself naked while he masturbates. She responds by sending shots in her underwear. But he wants to see more, he insists, threatening to commit suicide.
A warning of rigor
The conversation is finally cut short when the girl’s brother comes across her cell phone and passes the messages to her mother. The latter files a complaint and initiates the procedure.
The boy will necessarily be less talkative in front of the investigators. His auditions are held in a nutshell. He won’t say much more at the hearing, in front of the judges. “I was in love with her, I had feelings for her,” he said.
His attorney, Me Lagras, plays down. He believes the relationship has slipped and remembers that his client didn’t hide under a nickname, a fake profile, a fake photo. He declares his immaturity.
The court issues a less severe warning sentence than the one required by the prosecution. He sentences the young adult to two months’ imprisonment with suspension of the sentence and forbids him to exercise a profession in contact with minors for six months. He also receives a fine of 300 euros. And his name now appears in the file of the sex offenders.
