what becomes of Jean, the 12-year-old son of the two accused?

Little Jean was 8 years old when his father committed a quadruple murder in 2017 and his mother helped him hide the bodies. Is it possible to rebuild after such a tragedy? Christine Barois, psychiatrist, answers us.

Living with the crime of his parents. On Wednesday July 7, the Loire-Atlantique Assize Court delivered its verdict in the Troadec case. Hubert Caouissin was sentenced to 30 years of criminal imprisonment for the quadruple murder of his brother-in-law’s family on the night of February 16 to 17, 2017 in Orvault, near Nantes. His former companion, Lydie Troadec, was sentenced to three years in prison, two of which were closed, for modification of a crime scene and concealment of corpses, with a warrant of committal.

During the fifteen days of the trial, new elements shed light on the case. But it was also question of Jean, the son of the accused. Not present during the hearings, his name (given by the media) came up several times. Notably to attest to his difficult childhood.

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The young boy was 8 years old at the time of the facts. According to information from 20 minutes, after the murders, his parents left him several nights alone in their isolated farm in Pont-de-Buis… while they cleaned up the crime scene and recovered the bodies. They then entrusted him with the mission of “Monitor BFMTV in search of information on the police investigation”. Later, he will tell an educator to have seen his father throw in the water “An iron bar with a pointed end and a bloodstain”.

During the hearing on July 5, Tiffany Blondel, team leader at the departmental council of Finistère, spoke of the day she went to pick up the child after the imprisonment of her parents. It was March 8, 2017, less than a month after the quadruple homicide. All the words were reported by the 20 minutes.

“The child was on the veranda (of his grandmother) drawing”, she said. A drawing “Quite morbid”, as she described it, “Pipes with flowing blood”. He followed them without any difficulty: “He is a child who expresses few emotions. He didn’t cry, he was in his world. “

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A traumatic question

Joëlle Siffier, head of the child protection service, recalled the astonishing arrival of the little boy in the home. “He gave himself up to many adults without knowing them”, she said. He told without filter or emotion “Facts which his father told him”, relates the newspaper. “We had to accompany him so that he no longer presents himself as the child of the Troadec affair”, added Joëlle Siffier. She spoke of a polite and respectful child, in his bubble, who “Leaves little room for affect. “

A question from his father still traumatized him, reports the 20 minutes. Before his arrest, Hubert Caouissin indeed asked him if he preferred a “dead dad” or a “dad in prison”.

During the hearing, Magali Vendé, an executive in charge of entrusted minors, returned to the very strict education that the child was receiving. According to her, he lived in isolation with his parents and had been out of school for several months. “He could have come under educational assistance earlier”, she asserted. At the helm, Lydie Troadec recognized a form of psychological abuse “Involuntary. “

He continues to see his parents

Jean was able to see his father for the first time in the summer of 2019, when he was already in prison. Magali Vendé spoke of a reunion “without particular effusion” and “sober”. The young boy, now 12 years old, however sees his mother regularly and he takes a lot of pleasure there, always according to the 20 minutes.

He lives in a home where he made friends. “He knows that he is an individual in his own right, that he has the right to evolve, to grow. Today, it works for him, I hope it can continue ”, she has Magali Vendé. He is a very good student, who sees himself as a writer, researcher or doctor. He has not denied his parents: he loves them and appreciates the long-distance relationship, as his ad hoc administrator confided.

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To rebuild after such a tragedy

Is it possible to rebuild, after having experienced such a tragedy in your youth? This is a question that comes up often when we talk about the children of criminals. If there is a possibility of rebuilding his life, these cases often leave serious consequences.

For Christine Barois, psychiatrist for children, adolescents and adults, “The fact that he has evolved in a climate of violence already confronts Jean with anxiety”. It is explained: “He doesn’t know what the future may hold for him, if the adults around him can be as dangerous as his parents could have been. “

On several occasions it emerged that he was not crying or showing his emotions, even when talking about the drama. According to the expert, it may be because “So far he has assimilated it as something normal. If you are put in a jar from birth with a blue tree, you will think the trees are blue. He did not integrate the murder of others and the death of others as something appalling ”, she says. Before adding: “This is why educators must insist that what he saw / heard is not normal. You have to make her understand that you can’t do that to others. We must also tell him that he is not his parents. “

Nonetheless, she is optimistic about the young boy’s reconstruction. “We all have the capacity for resilience and forgetting. He will be able to have treatment for trauma, but it is not certain that this tragedy will affect his social relations in the future ”, she concludes.

Elise Poiret

Journalist specializing in parenthood, Elise writes for aufeminin and Parole de mamans. She is also very involved in the fight for women’s rights. If you only have to remember …