The facts took place on January 3 in Cenon (Gironde). The man, in pre-trial detention, was granted time to prepare his defense.
Tuesday January 3, a terrible tragedy was narrowly avoided in Cenon (Gironde), in the suburbs of Bordeaux. Around 10 a.m., a man burst into the premises of the town hall in the La Morlette district to violently attack his four-month-old son, reports South West.
After pulling the toddler with his foot, he placed a rope around his neck, in front of the child’s mother and several city workers. He was finally subdued by witnesses before he succeeded in strangling him, and was arrested in the process. The very young victim was transported to the hospital for examinations. The mother was not injured.
“I thought he was going to hurt my son”
Initially placed in police custody for attempted murder of a minor by ascendant, the man should have been tried on Thursday for willful violence against a minor with a weapon and use of a scythe. The 34-year-old suspect nevertheless requested additional time to prepare his defense as the law allows him. He was remanded in custody pending a further hearing.
The mother of the child and former companion of the suspect, named Rahmouch, was in the town hall for administrative procedures.
“I arrived a little early. And there, I saw the father arrive, if you can say the father. Directly, I don’t know why, I was scared. I told myself that he was going to do hurt my son. It was in my head, but it happened,” she told South West.
A suspect who “has no way out”
A police source tells the Figaro that this man, without papers of Algerian nationality, would have been “unhappy not to be able to benefit from a possible administrative regularization linked to the birth of the child”. He is homeless, and the vital card as well as the Belgian identity card found on him are false, reports South West.
“He pushed me, pulled the little one by the foot in his cozy. He said: ‘this is my son, this is my son’. The baby was screaming and crying, his head crushed against his father’s chest , who said: ‘that’s all you will have won, I’m going to kill him’. And he pulled out the rope”, continues Rahmouch to Sud-Ouest. “I shouted ‘help’, and three men came and jumped on him.”
For Rahmouch, the defendant “has no way out, is on the street and has nothing to lose. He wants to get back with me out of interest. All that is for revenge”.
During Thursday’s hearing, the man defended himself from any desire to kill his child: “I was tense, badly, I did not know what I was doing. How do you want me to kill my child” .
