'They've inflicted yet another assault,' parents say after judges mock mother

The mother, Isabelle, filed a complaint after her 10-year-old son told her his babysitter had sexually assaulted him.

Last week, three years after the alleged assault, the Bobigny Judicial Court acquitted the defendant due to lack of evidence.

The parents said they had prepared themselves for an acquittal. What shocked them instead were comments written by the judges that appeared in a copy of the judgment sent to their lawyer and seen by RFI.

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Judges' remarks

The comments included: "One can imagine that his mother, a psychologist and a 'bobo' [a French slang term meaning bourgeois-bohemian], indeed more bohemian than bourgeois, had overreacted and led her son into a delusion of victimisation and sexual violence, skewing his statements through her reaction and insistence... (Nah, I'm just joking, even if it's partly true)."

"If this is a joke, it's in very poor taste," said the family's lawyer, Paul Jouty.

The boy's mother said she was stunned after reading the judgment. Speaking to RFI, Isabelle said she felt “a tremor running through my whole body, then very quickly a surge of anger".

She added: “I thought to myself, it can't be right that my son's testimony is being treated like this. It's sickening. The justice system is inflicting yet another assault, when the victim deserves to be treated with all the respect that his suffering demands."

On the advice of her lawyer, Isabelle referred the matter to the High Council for the Judiciary, the body responsible for overseeing the professional conduct of judges, lodging three complaints – against the two lay judges and the president of the criminal court.

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Calls for change

For Lucas, the boy's father, the judge's remarks cast doubt on the entire judicial system.

“It calls into question all the judgments handed down by these people," he said, adding the case showed that the problems affecting the French justice system were not only linked to a lack of resources, but also to people who had "lost sight of the purpose of their work".

Jouty said: "As a professional going through difficult times, you have the right to play down these situations by making jokes. But this is something that must be done in a purely private setting. In this instance, we are really dealing with a joke in very poor taste that borders on value judgement."

He added that the remarks "reveal the viewpoint of a magistrate who paid little heed to the child's account – that much is certain."

Isabelle said the recent case of Lyhanna, the 11-year-old girl who was raped and killed in southwestern France at the end of May, "shows that things must change in the way gender-based and sexual violence against women – and especially against children – is dealt with".

She added: "[Complainants are] not believed from the outset, and are even mocked."

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Inquiry ordered

The chief suspect in the case, Jérôme Barella, had been reported to police nine months prior to Lyhanna's death over alleged sexual assault of another 10-year-old, over which he was not questioned. 

When contacted by RFI, Anne Auclair-Rabinovitch, president of the Bobigny District Court, apologised to the family.

"The full truth will be established, step by step, regarding each of the actions that may have led to a judgment containing hurtful remarks of this nature – remarks that do not comply with the ethical requirements of judges – being issued and addressed to the parties," she said.

In a post on X published on 19 June, Darmanin said he had ordered an "administrative inquiry into these extremely serious matters... with a view to proposing sanctions to the High Council of the Judiciary".

"The complainants and victims deserve the full respect of the justice system," he added.

This article has been adapted from the original version in French by Pierre Olivier.