generalspeaking

Social and Psychological Distress

In the annals of human cruelty and unforgivable acts of horrendous violence this one is outstanding in its moral depravity. A 33-year-old father has been charged by French police with murder. The horrible murder of an infant. A three year-old boy whose life was obviously not representative of the pleasures and comforts of childhood. For the final event that concluded his young life cannot have represented the only time this child was dreadfully abused.

Christophe Champenois, unemployed, was charged with the crime of "murder of a minor" in the small town of Germigny L'Evesque, Meaux, near Paris. The child's mother, Charlene, aged 25, was also charged. She with failing to prevent a crime. And failing to assist a person in danger. The 'person', her infant son. Her husband, her children's father, an obvious psychopath. One who, in a psychotic rage of inchoate fury took their child and distorted horribly the relationship between parent and child.

Parents' first obligation to their children, after all, is to cherish and nurture them. To love and support them emotionally and materially. To allow them to have a childhood free of pain and fear. To guide them to understanding the world around them, their society, and their place in that world. This parent of a small child was lacking in all the attributes of a father, let alone those one might assign to a casual onlooker.

The child was reported by his older sister, Maud, aged five, as having misbehaved at their nursery school. Little Maud also informed a neighbour who had attempted to resuscitate her brother Bastien, that this was not the first occasion that their father had placed the little boy, naked, into a washing machine. Perhaps it was the first time the father did so, and turned the machine on. Intent on punishment, he consigned his child to a dreadful death.

"I took the little boy in my arms, he was frozen, completely naked. He was all white, limp, practically like a toy", said the neighbour. "I felt his heart beat for the last time", she said, explaining how her attempt to massage the child's heart failed. Witness testimony further refutes the father's insistence that the child had fallen down the stairs. Death by misadventure, not by devious design.

That child, before his death had been repeatedly abused. He had been locked in a closet, isolated from all human contact, for hours. Neighbours had testified that Mr. Champenois was known to beat his wife. And not surprisingly, social services were aware of the tragic dysfunctional situation in that family and had been involved, assisting the family, "for social and psychological distress".

Labels: Crime, France, Human Fallibility

posted by Pieface @ Friday, December 02, 2011