A childminder, accused of having caused the death of a baby in her care by shaking it, was acquitted on Friday evening December 16 by the Assize Court of Hauts-de-Seine, which considered that the doubt remained as to the dating of the facts with which he was charged.
On November 24, 2015, the nanny called the emergency services to report the illness of a baby in her care. Hospitalized in the process, in a coma, little Augustin died about two weeks later, at the age of 10 months.
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A subdural hematoma was identified as the cause of his death. Combined with the retinal hemorrhage also seen in Augustin, it allowed the experts to determine that the infant had died of shaken baby syndrome. It remained to be determined when exactly the violent shaking had taken place.
“The duration of the interval“between the lesions and the appearance of the first symptoms”was less categorically appreciated by the experts during the debates“, noted the president during the reading of the motivations Friday evening in Nanterre. “The date of the subdural hematoma cannot be fixed with certainty on November 24, 2015 in the morningwhen the nanny had custody of the child, he added.
Defendant’s tears of joy
The decision was greeted by tears of joy from the accused and her children, and by the tears of sadness from the parents of little Augustin, who had instituted civil proceedings. “I have always been convinced of his innocence and I am happy that justice has respected the law“, reacted to AFP one of the nurse’s lawyers, Me Noémie Saïdi-Cottier.
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“I am surprised at the motivation of the Assize Court which calls into question the conclusions of the expert reports on the dating of the shaking“, declared for his part the lawyer of the parents of Augustin, Pierre de Combles de Nayves. The public prosecutor had requested five years in prison against the nanny, who was on trial for “violence resulting in death without intention to give it to a minor of 15 years by person having authority“.
“Honest questioning”
“It seems to me absolutely beyond doubt that this child was shaken on November 24 after being handed over by his father to the childminder“, argued Advocate General Jacques Cholet, relying on the findings of”nine experts, nine specialists“, who “all agree that Shaken Baby Syndrome exists.in the case of Augustine’s death.
For the Advocate General, the person responsible for this violence could not be either the husband or the son of the nurse, present on the scene that day, but who, according to the various testimonies, did not have the habit of s take care of children. The testimonies on the stand this week all painted the portrait of a calm, professional and loving nanny, above suspicion. “I would trust him with my own children without hesitation.“, declared during his argument Me Noémie Saïdi-Cottier.
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The lawyer, who had asked for the acquittal, explained in particular that there is “an undeniable international controversy, among scholars, over shaken baby syndrome“. “We condemn on the basis of controversial diagnoses“, she developed, specifying that “the doubt“put forward by the defense, “it is not conspiracy, it is honest questioning that founds the great judicial principles“.
Same observation for the other defense counsel, Me Christian Saint-Palais. “One must question the reliability of the words, including that of the experts“, he pleaded, defending himself from”any activism“. The defense relied in particular on the testimony at the bar during the week of Jean-Claude Mselati, a pediatrician, legal expert approved by the Court of Cassation who, contrary to the other experts heard during the hearings, issued reservations about the reliability of the diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome. “In some cases, it wasn’t the last person who saw the baby who shook it“, he had explained in particular.