According to the parents of the 13-year-old teenager, who committed suicide on January 7, their son was bullied at school because of his homosexuality.
Four 13-year-old minors will be “tried for school harassment leading to suicide” of young Lucas, a teenager who ended his life in early January in Golbey (Vosges), announced Friday the public prosecutor Frédéric Nahon. “Following the opening of the preliminary investigation, four minors were taken into custody by the urban security of the Epinal police station”said in a press release the public prosecutor of Épinal. “During their hearings, the respondents, two 13-year-old girls and two boys, educated in the same establishment as Lucas, only admitted to having repeatedly made fun of their comrade”added the prosecutor.
Investigation opened for “non-reporting of ill-treatment of minors”
Lucas’ parents believe he committed suicide after being bullied for being gay. “The facts took place from September 2022 to the beginning of January 2023”continued the prosecutor. “At the end of their police custody, the four minors were summoned before the children’s court of Épinal to be tried for bullying at school which led to the suicide of the victim, the investigation having established that the harassment could have participate in the passage to the suicidal act of the young Lucas”.
The death of the teenager had caused great emotion and triggered many reactions on social networks. “Presumed innocent, unknown to justice, the four minors will be assessed by the judicial protection of youth before their trial”, also made a point of highlighting Frédéric Nahon. He also announced the opening of a “incidental investigation against X for non-denunciation of ill-treatment of minors“. “Investigations are therefore continuing on this point”, he concluded.
Read alsoSuicide of Lucas: the teenager had expressed “his desire to end his life”, according to the prosecution
Lucas had written in his diary “a word explaining his desire to end his life”, Frédéric Nahon had declared at a press conference on January 13. His relatives revealed in their hearings the existence of mockery and insults of a homophobic nature of which the teenager had said he was a victim on the part of other students, he had further underlined. Lucas was educated at Louis Armand college in Golbey, where a psychological unit was set up in the days following his suicide. The rectorate had recalled that the establishment was “committed to the PHARe anti-harassment system”. According to the rectorate, the “mockery” reported by Lucas and his mother at the start of the school year had been “immediately taken seriously by the college teams”.
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