23 years after the tragedy, a father is tried before the Assize Court of Drôme, for shaking and hitting his two-month-old daughter.
Justice will finally be served. The facts go back to 1998, Cyril Siette, then aged 20, his wife and baby flee France for Portugal in order to escape social services. The unstable and precarious couple then illegally occupied the second home of the maternal grandmother of one of them, located near Porto. They are parents of a newborn, a little girl, Andréa-Marie.
On March 18, 1998, the father violently attacks the two-month-old baby, as France Bleu recounts: “He's pissed off at the crying little girl, he lashes out at her. He shakes her violently, throws her on the sofa. She falls to the ground where he kicks her violently ”, indicates the medium. The girl will eventually be taken to the emergency room where she succumbs to her injuries a few days later.
This scene unfolded in front of the mother, helpless and unable to react. “She describes herself under the influence of the psychologically violent father and even physically with her too, at this time”, indicates France Bleu.
A file forgotten
After the death of Andréa-Marie, the couple returned to France. The Portuguese justice in charge of the case, transmits the case to French justice in the months following the death. After that, four floors were seized: Evry, Pontoise, Bobigny and again Pontoise. In 2003, separated parents are summoned. The father does not respond to summons. They end up being taken into custody. The father then denies the facts, assuring that the girl had had a fall.
No follow-up will be given to the case, the file will even be lost in 2010. While the prosecution was preparing to dismiss the case, the mother decided to write to the Paris prosecutor in 2012 to request that “new acts are carried out. ”The investigation resumed.
30 years of criminal imprisonment
Five years later, the 43-year-old accused is found. He lived in Étoile-sur-Rhône, in the Drôme, where he worked as a computer technician. The Valence public prosecutor's office is opening a judicial investigation into the death of Andréa-Marie with aggravating circumstances: the girl was a minor and he was the father of the child.
The accused described as being violent and aggressive by his relatives, is on trial this Wednesday, February 10. The mother is on the victim bench. He faces 30 years of criminal imprisonment.