In Saint-Etienne, a 39-year-old man was sentenced to 18 years in prison for rape and sexual assault on 4 children. He took advantage of the periods of custody of his mother, a childminder, to attack his victims.
The story is terrible. In Saint-Etienne, the son of a childminder was sentenced to 18 years of criminal imprisonment for rape and sexual assault committed on 4 children from 2019. According to Progress, Arnaud André, 39, lived with his mother, a nanny, and attacked the children she looked after. Too young, the little ones failed to raise the alarm. The doubt was raised when, overnight, the defendant’s mother refused to continue to keep one of the children.
During the trial, Arnaud André’s lawyer, Me Ludivine Mathis, questioned the children’s word. “The file does not bring anything else to confess than what he confessed“, she said. She also highlighted the family environment “defaulting” and “very sexual” in which the defendant grew up, suggesting that he himself was sexually abused as a child. “For him, a sexual relationship at 3 years old is not rapeshe explained. He thought of leaving the choice to his little victims to say no.”
“It was society as a whole that failed to protect them”
In her argument, Advocate General Violaine Perrot requested 20 years of criminal imprisonment, highlighting not only the trauma inflicted on the children, but also the moral abuse suffered by their parents. “How to explain that these children, who are entrusted to a maternal assistant approved by the company, could have been abused? We understand the feeling of betrayal of the parents. It was society as a whole that failed to protect them.“, she launched.
Arnaud André will finally spend 18 years behind bars. With the verdict in, several questions remain unanswered. First, how many victims has the almost-forty-year-old had? Officially, four children were abused, but five plaintiffs sued the accused. Next, to what extent did the defendant’s mother know of her son’s actions? “Questions remain about his role. We can’t answer it, we have to accept that“, indicated Me Perrot.