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CRIME

French parents accidentally killed baby by ‘putting anti-depressants in her bottle’

A French couple have gone on trial accused of causing the death of their 13-month baby by allegedly putting antidepressants and tranquillisers in her bottle to stop her crying.

French parents accidentally killed baby by 'putting anti-depressants in her bottle'

The parents had initially said that the child, named Maëlyne, had fallen unconscious after she drank a glass of rosé wine left by a guest at their house in Champagné, west of Paris.

Maëlyne was in a coma when she was rushed to a hospital in nearby Le Mans. Doctors could not save her and she died on the night of 27 February 2015.

Doctors quickly dismissed the claim that the girl had drunk wine after they found in her body toxic doses of drugs usually prescribed for adults suffering from depression.

Investigators later found traces of the same drugs in the bottle of the couple’s other daughter, who was three at the time of Maëlyne’s death.

Police suspect that the parents, Delphine Niepceron, 27, and Cyrille Le Got, 43, administered the drugs to stop their children crying and to get them off to sleep.

The couple, who deny any wrongdoing, went on trial in Le Mans on Monday charged with administering dangerous substances that led a person’s death, but without the intention of killing that person.

 

 

 

CRIME

French cinema boss on trial for sexual assault

The head of France's top cinema institution Dominique Boutonnat denied sexually assaulting his godson as he went on trial Friday in a case that has led to calls for him to step down.

French cinema boss on trial for sexual assault

The trial comes as French cinema reels from a renewed #MeToo reckoning that has seen several big names, including acting legend Gerard Depardieu, accused of sexual abuse.

READ ALSO: French actor Gérard Depardieu to be tried for sexual assault in October

Activists have denounced Boutonnat’s continued leadership of the National Centre of Cinema (CNC), whose role includes overseeing measures to curb sexual violence in the industry.

His godson accuses him of trying to masturbate him during a holiday in Greece in 2020 when he was 19.

“I looked at him to find my godfather and that’s when I saw someone completely different… It was someone using me to masturbate,” the godson, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court.

Boutonnat responded in court that it was his godson who had initiated the situation and kissed him.

“I feel bad about leaving an ambiguous situation, but to say there was a sexual assault is false,” he told the court.

He was placed under investigation in February 2021 but still reappointed by the government as head of the CNC in July 2022.

Training to prevent abuse has in recent months become obligatory for films seeking public funding via the CNC.

The CNC told AFP that the case against Boutonnat came from “the private sphere” and had no relation to its activities.

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