In Oise, a mother beaten by her husband was rescued by her two sons, a courageous act that saved her life.
She could have been the 108th woman of the year killed by her spouse, one more femicide in 2021. On Friday, December 3, a mother living in Margny-sur-Matz, near Compiègne in the Oise, takes an aperitif with her spouse. They have just spent the evening decorating the Christmas tree with their four children, a peaceful and joyful evening as the end of the year holidays approach.
After three beers and three vodka-coca, the father, a 39-year-old former soldier, begins to be very alcoholic. The aperitif would then have degenerated when his partner receives a phone call from another man. Thinking of a lover, when he is actually his brother-in-law, he snatches the phone off her and starts hitting her. Between beatings, insults and death threats, the evening turns into a nightmare for the family.
Verbal and physical violence
After having thrown himself on his wife, Frédéric D. hits her violently on her knee, already weakened, then begins to strangle her. Violent gestures rain down – blows, hair pulled out – and mingle with insults and death threats. One of the children recounts the scene: “I heard screams, I saw him strangle mom. He said to her: ‘You’re going to die, I’m going to bury you in the garden’ ”. The young woman manages to get out of the beatings and lock herself in the bathroom, but the man kills the door and tries to strangle her again.
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The children intervene
As the mother was about to pass out from the second strangulation, the two boys of 14 and 16 had the courage to intervene to prevent the father from continuing. The adolescents came to master it and then made the decision to call the police. The blood alcohol test will reveal that he still had 1.8 grams of alcohol in his blood, two hours after the incident. The father of the family was sentenced on Monday December 6 to three years in prison, two of which are closed, by the court of Compiègne.
Prosecutor Marie-Céline Lawrysz praised the coolness and responsiveness of the adolescents: “Everyone can be proud of these two boys. Without them, Madame would probably no longer be here today”. If the decision taken by the adolescents was beneficial for the mother, one can imagine how difficult the conflict of loyalty towards the violent parent can be to manage in the context of domestic violence, hence the need to educate and raise awareness of these issues. violence.
At the time of the facts, the four children were present at the family home: the two teenagers, as well as their two young sisters. let’s remember that domestic violence in the presence of children is an aggravating circumstance. Today, among children living in an environment of domestic violence, 80% are eyewitnesses and / or auditors, and 100% are immersed in psychological violence. This situation has serious consequences for these minors, often marked by post-traumatic stress and likely to reproduce or suffer similar violence in adulthood.