A week after the discovery of the lifeless body of a 7-year-old child, the lawyers for the mother and the main suspect, her companion, are talking. So far, five people have been charged.
“She’s a distraught woman“, says Me Anais Guenoune at the microphone of France3 Provence-Alps. One week after deathunder a certain number of blows“from little Malakai, 7, in La Seyne-sur-Mer (Var), the lawyer for the 32-year-old mother spoke to defend her client, placed in pre-trial detention at Baumettes in Marseille.
She is indicted for non-denunciation of a crime, non-assistance to a 15-year-old minor in danger and voluntary abstention from preventing a crime or an offense against a 15-year-old minor.
She mourns the death of her son and longs for only one thing: to begin her grieving process in the hope of being allowed to attend the funeral.
Me Anais Guenoune, mother’s lawyer
“My client says she never hit her baby boy“continues Me Anais Guenoune.
The investigation continues, in particular around the relatives of the family and the companion of the mother. This last “was indicted for the murder of a 15-year-old minor and placed in pre-trial detention“, said Samuel Finielz, the Toulon prosecutor, last Tuesday. “He acknowledges the charges against him.“
What relationship existed between the mother and her partner ? Was there violence between them ?
There is “no report in relation to the couple“, says Me Olivier Hasenfratz, the companion’s lawyer, “no particular report at the level of the neighbors. I believe that, unfortunately, it was a couple that functioned normally.“
Her colleague is less affirmative : “In a couple, there are bound to be difficulties. The investigation will allow us to determine what was the degree of influence of Mr. on Mrs.. But there has been no violence in the past against Madame.“
What the investigation has already indicated, however, is that the child had been abused a few days before the discovery of his body. Was he regularly beaten by his stepfather?
I cannot answer you. I don’t know and I don’t think it is of much interest at this stage of the investigation.
Me Olivier Hasenfratz, lawyer for the companion
The lawyer explains that this family lives”with specific rules and laws that escape us“.”My client is aware of what happened. He regrets.“
Me Anais Guenoune points out one last aspect : the role of social services. Because the boy had been followed by Var children’s social assistance since 2018. A report had also been made to the judicial authority “at the end of April 2022 due to educational deficiencies and addictive behaviors of the mother and a totally absent father“, according to the Toulon Public Prosecutor’s Office.
But the measure of educational assistance in an open environment ordered by the children’s judge could not be put in place because the mother had not shown up for the scheduled appointments.
“We could have avoided this tragedy because social services did not play the role they should have. Little Malakai could have been placed and be alive today“, says the lawyer.
Currently, in this file, five people were charged and taken into custody : the mother, her companion and the latter’s mother, brother and sister. The boy’s father-in-law is currently imprisoned in the Toulon prison center and the grandmother in the Nice prison.