You Won’t Believe What This Dad Did To His Son For Misbehaving

A court in Assize Melum, Paris on tuesday heard how a father Christophe Champenois allegedly killed his three-year-old son Bastien by putting him in a washing machine and turning it on because the boy behaved badly at school. Bastien’s mother Charlotte Cotte was also arraigned as she was charged with collusion.

According to Daily Mail, during the first day of his murder trial,  Champenois claimed he had no memory of the events on November 25, 2011, when Bastien died. It was Champenois himself who called emergency services in the town of Germigny-l’Eveque, east of Paris, saying he had a ‘small problem’ as his son had fallen down the stairs. He added that he had given him a bath to refresh him and that the toddler must have drowned because he had water coming out of his nostrils.

However the victim’s older sister, who was at the time five years old had a different version of events which she has maintained through out the investigation, when she told the doctor: ‘Daddy put Bastien in the washing machine because he was naughty at school.

Speaking to investigators, Cotte stated she was doing a puzzle with her daughter and Champenois was surfing on the internet while their son screamed inside the tumbling machine. She said that when her ex-husband removed Bastien from the washing machine and noticed he was no longer breathing he said: ‘At least he won’t bother us anymore.’ Cotte also stated in an interview with Le Parisien  she had tried to save her son but Champenois had pushed her away from the washing machine.

A neighbour who came to the apartment to help described Bastien as ‘frozen, completely naked. He was all white, limp, practically like a toy.’

Cotte was initially charged with failing to prevent a crime, but this was changed to ‘aiding and abetting murder and violence.’She again denied any complicity in the crime in court on Tuesday.

Her lawyer Gerard Zbili described her as a ‘broken woman who lost the child that she loved’ but who was unable to protect him out of fear of her husband. Zbili added that Cotte had been regularly beaten by Champenois and claimed she had never taken part in punishments inflicted on Bastien.

It was also revealed that Champenois never wanted the boy and always gave out extreme punishments whenever he misbehaved at home or school which included locking him in a cupboard.

The failure of social workers will also be examined in the trial, as three reports of a ‘child in danger’ and nine of ‘worrying information’ had been filed before the murder. The family had been in the care of social workers for four years prior to the alleged murder, the court heard.

‘This is not an isolated act… it is not a fit of rage or madness, it is the final act of violence against a child who was always mistreated,’ said Isabelle Steyer, lawyer for a child protection group, who said Bastien has ‘fallen through all the cracks.’ 

A verdict is expected on Friday.