Behind trivial gestures sometimes lies lasting trauma. This was highlighted on Monday, May 12, 2025, by the La Roche-sur-Yon Criminal Court, which sentenced a 35-year-old father for violence against his two children, aged 4 and 7 at the time of the incident. The man, who has no criminal record, appeared for having inflicted blows—which he himself described as "slaps on the wrists"—on his children, in the context of a stormy marital separation. The courts, however, saw these brutal gestures as sources of anxiety and persistent disorders in the children.
“Not to hurt them,” but to “make them understand”
The father, who now lives far from Vendée in a blended family, admitted in court to having delivered these slaps "about ten, maybe twenty times" when he was looking after his children alone, often on weekends or at night, while their mother was working. "It wasn't the best method, I agree," he admitted before the judges, attempting to justify these actions as "hot-spot reactions," notably to prevent the children from putting themselves in danger. But the evidence gathered by investigators paints a darker picture. The children interviewed by the police described blows to the arm, an anxious atmosphere, and repeated nightmares for the eldest. A medical-psychological report spoke of children who were "insecure," "fearful," and "mental suffering." For the public prosecutor, Fiammetta Esposito, there is no doubt: "The children are credible precisely because they don't overreact." »
Tense family context, unacceptable gestures
The complaints originated last summer. Separated for several weeks, the mother filed a complaint after the children confided in her, spontaneously according to her lawyer, what they had suffered. She herself had already filed a complaint in the past for domestic violence. "It was only after the father left that the children spoke," emphasized her lawyer. "Before, they lived in a climate of tension where they dared not say anything." Faced with the accusations, the defense pleads an exaggerated reaction and a judicial exploitation of the family conflict. "Why this complaint a month and a half after the father left?" asks the lawyer, Éric Muller, who requests an acquittal, denouncing in passing a severance of the parental bond unilaterally decided by the mother. The court, for its part, ruled. Without imposing a prison sentence or a heavy fine, he opted for an educational sentence, imposing a parental responsibility course on the father and awarding the mother and each of the two children a symbolic one euro in damages. A judgment that, while it may seem measured, sends a clear message: in the family sphere, no violent act, even supposedly educational, should be minimized.
