Will French TV campaign to stop parents smacking children lead to a ban? Fat chance

Another campaign in the form of a 30-second spot on TV and Internet, will be launched this week in France by the Fondation de l'enfance (Foundation for childhood) designed to show why it's not all right to smack a child.

According to the Fondation, in three out of every four French families, parents resort at some point to smacking or slapping their children.

We're talking about under-fives here!

"Any abuse of children can affect their physical and psychological health," says the co-ordinator of the campaign Dr Gilles Lazimi on the organisation's official website.

He wants legislation introduced to bring France into line with most other European countries

The video, is designed to illustrate that this form of "education" is not only counterproductive but also dangerous.

It's also supposed to shock parents.

(screenshot from Fondation de l'enfance video)

 Here we go again. A campaign meant to raise awareness of an issue but one which will probably be met at best with disinterested indifference.

The evidence that it'll have little or no impact is overwhelming.

23 European countries have already passed legislation making corporal punishment, of which smacking is a part, a punishable offence.

Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Moldova, Netherland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine,

"Status of corporal punishment: total abolition has been achieved – corporal punishment is prohibited in the home, schools, penal systems and alternative care settings"

But France looks as though it's in no hurry to do likewise.

A bill was presented to the National Assembly by the former parliamentarian and paediatrician  Edwige Antier in 2010.

Nothing happened.

Just over a year ago TF1 ran a report on the "Bon usage de la fessée" in which the case of one mother was used to explain how and why so many parents think it's all right to smack their children...when it's done "properly".

And even though the report also focused on a workshop to encourage alternative sets of parenting skills, the inclusion of a doctor saying it was "all right on occasions to smack a child" simply made the three-and-a-half minute piece an apology for an accepted practice.

(screenshot from Fondation de l'enfance video)

On Monday, France 2 featured the launch of the Fondation's campaign towards the end of its prime time news (here's the link - after the commercial fast forward to 31.37)

The least can be said is that just over one year down the line, attitudes towards smacking seem to be pretty much the same and the format for covering the issue is exactly that: a format.

First up one mother "explaining" that a "gentle" smack was sometimes both appropriate and necessary for her children "to learn".

"I smack him, not in a way which is intended to hurt but to demonstrate to him that he has passed a boundary I've already defined with him," said 28-yea-old teacher Claire Boudaoud.

"And after the smack we talk about it: why I had to do it and put it into context."

Another teacher (France 2 obviously had a stock of them lined up) Chahra Joubrel was also interviewed to put forward the other point of view.

She had smacked her children in the past but now thinks it's the wrong method of disciplining a child.

"It reflects domination by the adult over the child and is certainly not in the child's best interests," she said.

And thrown in for good measure was "the expert" - this time around in the form of psychoanalyst Claude Halmos whose contribution turned what should otherwise have been an objective report into one which became the same inevitable apology for a common practice throughout the country and down the generations.

"We must not confuse systematic beating of a child with the occasional smack given by a parent who loves and respects their child but at a certain moment has no other option. That sort of example is not one of mistreating a child" she said.

Great. So now the parents who are smacking the children are the victims - or what?

And that's an essential part of the problem.

Health professionals in France, according to a poll carried out in 2010,  are overwhelmingly opposed to any sort of legislation banning smacking.

The prevailing belief it seems among most French - and even those foreigners who've chosen to live here - is that the occasional smack under the right circumstances is an effective and appropriate method of education and disciplining a child.

Just take a look at the responses to a similar post last year on the subject on a forum for English-speakers living in France.

France might "need a total ban on parents smacking kids" according to Lazimi,

But convincing lawmakers might be more than the proverbial uphill struggle.

Let's hope the video helps.

The "proper" way to smack a child

All right so it's not exactly what a report on TF1's prime time news on Tuesday evening was saying, but in a way, it surely wasn't far from it.

It's all a matter of interpretation.

"Bon usage de la fessée" ran the title of a three-and-a-half minute clip introduced by anchor Laurence Ferrari and although it has been tempered somewhat on the site to read "Pour bien punir ses enfants, tout est question de mesure" the underlying message remains the same doesn't it?

TF1's report was part of an ongoing series looking at the education - in the broad sense of the word - of children and featured a couple with three young boys.

The mother, Marie-Laure Vital, admitted, just as 80 per cent of French parents apparently do, that she occasionally smacks her children.

Vital sometimes feels "unable to cope" and because she reportedly often feels that the punishment - whatever form it might take - isn't doing its job properly or is inappropriate, she has joined a workshop which specifically teaches parenting skills.

"L'atelier des parents" is a one of a kind in France and on the agenda during TF1's filming was the subject of punishment, with one of the workshop's psychologists, Caroline Iruela, detailing what sort of discipline was unacceptable and the eight parents present exchanging their experiences.

So far so good.

But then up pops a doctor - a paediatrician no less - with over 30 years experience.

And while he maintains, just as you would expect from a professional that, "If smacking is carried out to hurt or publicly humiliate a child, it's not effective" take a look at his gesture as he begins this contribution.

Doesn't it seem to imply that an "appropriate" slap on the hands is perfectly all right as it doesn't really constitute smacking?

Last year after a woman was given a six-month suspended sentence for smacking her child, the lines of a 'phone-in programme on national radio were buzzing with indignation.

Listeners were appalled by the decision and critical of the invited guest, paediatrician and parliamentarian Edwige Antier. who has tried to introduce a law to ban smacking.

"A mother should be a 'protector' and what's needed in France is a law, as exists in 18 other European countries, abolishing the right parents have to hit a child," said Antier during the show.

It wasn't a point of view with which many listeners agreed and they're not alone.

A 2010 poll among health professionals showed that 88 per cent of them were also against the introduction of such a law.

While domestic corporal punishment, of which smacking is one form, is against the law in many European countries, it seems to be acceptable in France.

Screenshot from Council of Europe video "Raise your hand against smacking"

And while the prevailing thinking runs along the lines of "A smack from time to time has never hurt anyone," (read some of the comments to TF1's report), that 2008 Council of Europe "Raise your hand against smacking" campaign calling on all member states to pass laws prohibiting all forms of corporal punishment of children, including smacking, looks set to have little impact on lawmakers here.

Smacking's all right isn't it? As long as it's done "properly".

French woman receives six-month suspended sentence for smacking her child

Screenshot from Council of Europe video "Raise your hand against smacking"

"Yes I was smacked and it never did me any harm. In fact I deserved it," said one caller to Jean-Marc Morandini's 'phone-in programme on Europe 1 radio on Thursday.

"Smacking is not the same as child abuse, don't try to exaggerate," said another.

Both were responding to comments by Morandini's invited guest, paediatrician Edwige Antier, who was on the show to talk about spanking and the need for a law in France to ban it.

Antier was defending a ruling earlier this week in which a court in northern France gave a woman a six-month suspended sentence and ordered her to receive psychological counselling, after finding her guilty of wilful violence towards a minor for having slapped her nine-year-old daughter.

The incident that led to the woman being found guilty dates back to last December.

As reported in the French media, the woman, who had apparently been drinking, slapped her daughter during an argument at home.

The girl ran out of the house and into the street where she was intercepted by a passerby who happened to be a social worker.

Seeing the state the girl was in, the social worker took her to the nearest police station.

Her mother was then brought in for questioning and charged.

"The punishment is totally out of proportion," said the woman's lawyer, Alice Cohen-Sabban, after the suspended sentence was handed down.

"She has never needed social services to intervene for anything, she has never been convicted and although she had been drinking when the incident happened she is not an alcoholic," Cohen-Sabban told Agence France Presse.

But that's not quite how Antier sees it - or any other case of smacking come to that.

And when Morandini asked her whether she found the ruling "normal" the 68-year-old, who is also a member of parliament for the centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) and tabled a bill in 2009 to make domestic corporal punishment unlawful in France, was quite clear about where she stands.

"Imagine you were faced with someone you knew who was much larger than you and had been drinking, and they turned round and hit you," she retorted.

"Would you find that normal?

"The law as it stands at the moment gives a mother the right to hit a child, and even a babysitter, if the motive is 'an educational one'," she continued.

"But the mother should be a 'protector' and what's needed in France is a law, as exists in 18 other European countries, abolishing the right parents have to hit a child."

Not many of the callers to the programme seemed to agree with her.

Nor did a lot of the comments left on French websites such as that of Le Point or Radio France Internationale in reaction to the suspended sentence handed down to the woman and the issue of smacking in general.

Ranging from " it doesn't do any harm," through "limits need to be set and children have to be disciplined" to "the sentencing in this case will just do more harm than good to the family and especially the girl involved," it certainly seems as though Antier's views put her in the minority.

And that's perhaps not surprising as a poll conducted among health professionals in France just last year showed that 88 per cent of them were against the introduction of a law banning smacking.

Domestic corporal punishment, of which smacking is one form, is against the law in many European countries, but not in France.

In 2008 the Council of Europe launched its "Raise your hand against smacking campaign" and called on all member states to pass laws prohibiting all forms of corporal punishment of children, including smacking.

Stop child sex abuse - teach The Underwear Rule

A campaign has been launched aimed at raising awareness about child abuse and in particular encouraging children who suffer from it to speak up and get help.

"The Underwear Rule" is part of the Council of Europe's ONE in FIVE campaign to stop sexual violence against children.



According to the Council of Europe statistics one in five children in Europe is a victim of sexual abuse and "it's estimated that in 70 to 85% of cases, the abuser is somebody the child knows and trusts."

"TRUSTS" - did you get that?

The Underwear Rule speaks to children directly and provides "a simple guide to help parents explain to children where others should not try to touch them, how to react and where to seek help."

Kiko (snapshot from television spot)

It includes a television advertisement featuring the cartoon character Kiko telling children what is and isn't acceptable in terms of being touched.

And a 20-page "The Underwear Rule" book can be downloaded free of charge from the campaign's website.

"What is The Underwear Rule?"

"It’s simple," writes Juliet Linley, in her Corriere della Sera column Mamma Mia.

"A child should not be touched by others on parts of the body usually covered by their underwear. And they should not touch others in those areas.

It also helps explain to children that their body belongs to them, that there are good and bad secrets and good and bad touches.

Through its ONE in FIVE campaign, the Council of Europe wants to achieve two main goals:

a) promote the signature, ratification and implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse; 


b) equip children, their families/carers and societies at large with knowledge - and tools - to prevent and report sexual violence against children, thereby raising awareness of how widespread sexual violence against children is."

At the launch of the campaign in Rome, Maud de Boer Buquicchio, the deputy secretary-general of the Council of Europe said she hoped it would "inspire countries across the world to tackle the global phenomenon of child abuse," and "make sure international borders are not an obstacle in prosecuting offenders."

Father forces son to eat school report card

Parental responsibility in education is something of a political catchphrase at the moment here in France especially when it comes to tackling the problem of truancy.

But one man in the western central city of Poitiers took his "duties" a step further by hitting his son for obtaining bad grades and forcing him to eat his report card.

Students holding report card, Wikipedia, author Aaron Manning

It's one of those tales that surely makes you sit back and wonder what could have been going through the parent's mind.

As outlined in the regional daily La Nouvelle République du Centre-Ouest, the man wasn't happy with the grades his son had obtained on a recent report card, and as a punishment he sent the teenager to his room but not before "Giving him a wallop on the backside".

His anger didn't stop there though, as he apparently followed the boy upstairs, forced him to eat his report card and then slapped his son across the face.

When the boy appeared in school the next day with a swollen lip, teachers contacted social services and the police, who charged the father with assault.

"Overstepping the mark" was how the national daily Aujourd'hui en France-Le Parisien described the man's behaviour, and one with which many readers seemed to agree in the newspaper's comments section.

But judges were more lenient when the man appeared before a court on Tuesday, finding him guilty of assault but handing down just give a two-month suspended sentence and ordering him to pay his son the sum of €1 in damages.

The relationship between the two has "improved" according to the man, who said during the trial that "Since the event (of the report card) I have no longer hit my son."

Well that's all right then!

French police in child porn swoop

Early Tuesday morning police arrested 90 people in a nationwide sweep to break up a suspected online child pornography ring in France.

More than 300 officers were dispatched throughout the country following an investigation that had lasted more than four years and had centred on the sharing of images and videos of children reportedly as young as one year old.

Police also seized computers in Tuesday's operation with one of them alone, according to James Juan, the public prosecutor of the northern city of Beauvais (Oise), containing more than 30,000 images.

"That was just the pictures," he told a news conference. "There were also around 1,000 videos on that single computer."

The roots of the operation go back to December 2004, when a site containing pornographic pictures and videos of children first came to the attention of the police.

The creator, from the northern town of Clermont (Oise), was just 17 years old at the time when he set up the site.

Even though he was arrested in May 2005, the pictures and videos were still on the Net and others were downloading and sharing material from his server; proof as far as the police were concerned, that there was an "organised network in place" for diffusing child pornography.

And so began "Némésis" - the code-name for the investigation - to trace and locate those involved in the suspected ring. It was carried out by a specialised police unit to monitor cyber crime.

It was a process which Robert Bouche, the commander in charge of one of the sections in the northern city of Amiens (Somme), admitted was long, but necessary under the circumstances.

"We were dealing with people who knew how to use the Internet and technology easily," he said

"Many for example were computer experts (data processors or computer scientists) more than capable of making the job of investigators all the more difficult and ensuring they couldn't easily be identified," he added.

The 90 men, whose identities have not been released as investigations are still ongoing, apparently come from all walks of life.

If charged and found guilty they could face prison sentences of up to 10 years.

Outreau affair judge reprimand - a new French justice fiasco?

On Friday, Fabrice Burgaud, the investigating judge at the centre of the so-called Outreau affair - arguably one of France's biggest miscarriages of justice, received an official reprimand for his handling of the case.

And the apparent lightness of the penalty handed down by the disciplinary body, le Conseil supérieur de la magistrature (CSM), has already brought swift reactions.

A former Socialist party justice minister, Elisabeth Guigou, called the decision, "A new fiasco for (French) justice."

While Dominique Wiel, one of the defendants wrongly found guilty in 2004 and acquitted a year later said that he had expected Burgaud to have been prevented from working as a magistrate for at least a year.

"This type of decision is a bad example to young magistrates," he said. "It's telling them 'I can make a mistake but in the end I won't be punished for it'."

Burgaud was the investigating judge in the Outreau affair, dealing with an alleged paedophile ring in northern France.

And back in 1999 he began his inquiries that would lead to 12 innocent people being imprisoned, one suicide, two trials and the statement from the former French president, Jacques Chirac, declaring that the trial had been an "unprecedented judicial disaster".

When Burgaud took on the case, he was just 31 years old and it was his first job as an examining magistrate.

The allegations made by the two main protagonists in the case, Myriam Delay and her husband, Thierry, eventually saw 18 people - for the most part parents of children who had supposedly been the victims of paedophilia and incest - brought to trial in 2004.

Of the accused, four - including Delay and her husband - pleaded guilty and were sentenced, another seven insisted they were innocent and acquitted, while six others - all of whom maintained their innocence were all sentenced.

They appealed and a year later were also acquitted as the prosecution's case collapsed on the first day after a "coup de théâtre" with Delay finally admitting that they "had not done anything" and the she had lied all along.

The case made international headlines, threw the French justice system into the spotlight and led to that description from Chirac - not a man easily given to criticising the country's institutions that the affair had been "an unprecedented judicial disaster".

It also brought into question the exact role and power here in France of an examining magistrate - very much at the heart of reforms to overhaul the country's judiciary favoured by the current president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

All along unions have said that Burgaud had been made a scapegoat for police failures in the investigation process and even though the decision by the CSM is a relatively light one and is reportedly the lowest of nine possible reprimands his lawyers still aren't happy and it's likely that an appeal will be made on his behalf.

Burgaud is currently working in the Paris courts.

The end of a childhood horror story for eight brothers and sisters

It's a shocking story and one which hit the headlines on Tuesday afternoon here in France.

A couple have been taken into police custody and charged with neglecting and mistreating their children after police and social services discovered the wretched conditions in which they were living.

The case first came to the attention of the local authorities just last Friday in Banyuls-sur-Mer in the southwestern French department of Pyrénées Orientales.

One of their children was seen rummaging through dustbins. The 16-year old was bleeding from the head and visibly emaciated.

Passers-by informed the police and when questioned, he explained that he had been hit on the head with a pot by his mother and beaten on the arms with a stick.

He had been punished, he told the police, because he had stolen a lump of sugar.

The boy weighed just 32 kgs (71 lbs) for 1,65m (five feet and five inches) and was immediately taken to hospital for treatment.

When the police arrived at his home to question his parents, they found an apartment almost bare of furniture according to the regional daily newspaper, Le Midi Libre.

There were no beds, just covers that served as mattresses. The kitchen and the sitting room were locked and the fridge was virtually empty.

There were also seven other children in the apartment - one boy and six girls - ranging in age from seven to 17. They all showed scars and traces from having been regularly beaten.

Two of the girls, aged 13 and 15, weighed just 22kgs (48lbs) and were immediately taken to a nearby hospital.

The remaining children were taken to a foster home and on the way "the police stopped at a fast food restaurant and the eyes of the children lit up as though they had discovered another world," is how Le Midi Libre describes their journey out of hell.

The parents were immediately taken into police custody.

The father, a 50-year-old devout Moslem, reportedly told investigators that for him the condition of his children was a sign of the success of their education, and that he wanted to "purify them".

"This is a case of a family that lived outside of reality and totally cut off from the rest of society," Jean-Pierre Dreno, the public prosecutor of Perpignan told reporters.

"The father's behaviour was exactly as one would expect from someone who treated his own family as a sect," he added.

Only three of the children were sent to school, the rest had dropped out once they had reached puberty because the education authorities refused to allow them to attend wearing headscarves.

Under French law there is a ban on the wearing of conspicuous religious symbols in public schools at both primary and secondary levels;

"There had been a conflict in the past between the mother and the school authorities especially about absenteeism " said Dreno.

"The only affair that we had in this department in 2003 about the wearing of the headscarves at school involved this family and theoretically the children were following lessons by correspondence," he added

The father and his 49-year-old wife have been charged with putting at risk the health and lives of their children and failing to provide them with the appropriate education and security.

They also have a ninth child who is no longer living at home.

French justice condemns silence and indifference in child abuse case

The verdict is in on the case of the death of five year old Marc, who died in January 2006 after being beaten and tortured by his step father, David Da Costa.

On Thursday a court in the northern French town of Douai, convicted Da Costa for murder and found the boy's mother, Isabelle Gosselin, guilty of complicity. He received a life sentence, she will spend the next 30 years behind bars.

But they weren't the only ones in the dock in a case which brought to trial not only those who had played a direct role in Marc's death, but also those who had done nothing to prevent it from happening, even though they should and could have done.

There were also sentences handed down to seven other people on trial for failing to assist a person in danger.

They included Marc's grandparents, and his aunt and uncle - all of whom received a three year suspended sentence, and a childminder, who was also a close friend of the mother. She was given a one year suspended sentence.

And then as reported previously here, there were the two doctors, Christian Tirloy and Michel Vellemans. They were each given three year suspended sentences and fines of €60,000 and €75,000 respectively.

Both of them had seen Marc in the weeks preceding his death but had accepted his mother's explanations that he was self harming and had failed, as far as the court was concerned, to examine him properly. An autopsy showed that had they done so, they would have discovered the full extent of his injuries.

As a reminder of how much Marc had suffered, that autopsy revealed that he had died of a cerebral haemorrhage caused by multiple punches to the head. But it also showed that he had fractured ribs, bruising to his back and other scars including cigarette burns and scratches covering the whole of his body.

When confronted during the trial with a summary of Marc's injuries, one of doctors - Vellemans - who had seen the boy just eight days before he died, was asked how he had missed any physical signs of injury and why he had failed to carry out a proper examination.

After all that autopsy showed that at the time of the last appointment the boy must have had difficulty walking and had a fractured pelvis and ribs .

"I don't have any explanation," Vellemans told the court. "I should have done (examined him) - nothing else would have been possible".

It was a testimony that evidently made little sense to the court, and was as difficult to understand as their reaction, expressed through one of their defence lawyers, Vincent Potie, after the court's ruling to fine and sentence them.

"They're shocked and overcome," said their lawyer, Vincent Potie. "They find it appalling that what they thought they were doing in fulfilling their role as doctors, has now been defined as a crime."

Perhaps the most important outcome of the trial and the media coverage it has received over the past couple of weeks here, was not the conviction of Da Costa and Gosselin - those were pretty much a foregone conclusion from the start.

Instead it was to open up a discussion and bring to public attention the responsibility of those indirectly involved in the death of Marc - those who knew or should have known what was going on, but said nothing or were, for whatever reason, unable to say anything.

And to show that as far as the law is concerned, silence and indifference are unacceptable and such a case should be preventable, as the public prosecutor Luc Frémiot said on national radio afterwards.

"It's a reminder of what should be the norm - to repeat to people that they need to, and should do something when they see cases of child abuse," he said

"Everyone has to open their eyes. We're all concerned with this problem of violence and we all need to do something about it."

Enfance et partage TV spot

Parents and doctors on trial over child abuse death

Sadly the story of the death of five-year-old Marc is one too often repeated both here in France and around the world.

But what's most striking in the trial that opened on Monday in the northern French town of Douai, is that not only his parents stand accused of his death, but two doctors - in other words those who should have been best positioned to protect him - are also facing prosecution.

Marc was found dead on January 25, 2006 at his mother's home.

An autopsy revealed that he had died of a cerebral haemorrhage caused by multiple punches in the face. But it also showed that he had fractured ribs, bruising to his back and other scars including cigarette burns covering the whole of his body that indicated previous beatings.

On trial are the boy's step father, David Da Costa, accused of murder by torturing and repeatedly beating the child, and his mother, Isabelle Gosselin, for complicity in a crime.

Alongside them in the dock are seven other people. They include Marc's grandparents, his aunt and uncle, a childminder who was the mother's best friend and two doctors, Christian Tirloy and Michel Vellemans. All stand accused of failing to assist a person in danger.

According to reports compiled by police after his death, Marc's life could have been saved several times in the weeks leading up to January 25.

But his mother always explained any evidence of bruising on his face to family and friends as being a result of the five-year-old's self-harming. Gosselin told them that her son hit his head against the wall and threw himself downstairs.

And that was a story she repeated to the two doctors, one of whom saw Marc at the end of December 2005 and the other in January, a week before his death.

Both doctors insist that their suspicions were never aroused and that they considered Gosselin to be a "good mother" and one beyond suspicion.

Alice Cohen Sabban, a lawyer for Vellemans, who examined Marc in January, told French television that the doctor had noticed several scratches, but had accepted Gosselin's explanation of how the boy had acquired them and recommended she take him for a psychiatric evaluation.

"He made a diagnosis based on what the mother told him and what he saw," she said.

"And he came to the conclusion that the boy wasn't being mistreated but that it was a behavioural problem - his behavior - that was the cause of his bruising and scratches."

For Alain Reisenthel, one of the prosecuting lawyers however, that explanation is unsatisfactory.

"If the doctor had seen the child and conducted a full examination, he would have stopped the mother from leaving the surgery and contacted the police," he said.

Furthermore Reisenthel believes that all of the seven people on trial for failing to assist a person in danger played a part in the death of the child.

"If just one of them had intervened, Marc would still be alive," he told journalists.

The trial is being seen as not just one about child abuse, but also about the apparent "indifference" of those who should have been in a position to prevent or stop it from happening.

It's set to run until November 7

Enfance et partage - TV spot

Enfance et partage - a French association to protect and defend children against abuse

A French village meets woman who killed her father 19 years later

Ida Beaussart returned to the village of Salomé in northern France at the weekend for the first time in 19 years.

She was there to attend a special screening of a film that depicted the days that led up to her killing her father, Jean-Claude, in July 1989.

"I was frightened about coming back here, about appearing in front of you," Beaussart told the 500 or so people who had crowded into the village hall, which had been transformed into a cinema for the evening.

"I feared you might hate me and treat me like a murderess.

"All I ask is please don't leave before the film has finished. What you're going to see is what I lived through."

And what they sat through together with Beaussart for the first time, was a film that touched everyone present, as was clear from the report carried on prime time national television news on Sunday evening.

The film "Pleure en silence" from 2006 wasn't just an imaginary tale that would fail to touch the local population. It was the true story of how the then 17-year-old Beaussart finally broke down and shot her sleeping father, thereby ending years of misery, humiliation, terror and violence he had directed towards her, her four sisters and her mother.

In 1992 she was acquitted of murder - a verdict that might on the face of it appear shocking But the full facts behind the case revealed a childhood that was full of fear, beating and indoctrination.

The cruelty within the family had been common knowledge at the time, but nobody had tried to stop it, and even today Beaussart insists that the outcome had been "inevitable".

At her trial it emerged that most people in Salomé and the neighbouring villages knew about the violence to which Beaussart and the rest of the family were being subjected.

She and her sisters and her mother were hit, insulted and humiliated on an almost daily basis. Her father was a neo-Nazi who had been thrown out of the Far-right Front National and who kept weapons in the house. The girls were made to salute a picture of Hitler every morning.

It also transpired that the conspiracy of silence seemed absolute because everyone was afraid of Jean-Claude Beaussart. He had the reputation of being a violent man, and even though he was known to police and had served eight months in prison for inciting racial hatred, they too appeared to be frightened of him.

"We heard crying in the house. We were all terrified of him," one woman who used to live next door to the family told the regional daily La Voix du Nord immediately after the weekend screening of the film.

"One day we wanted to intervene but he threatened us with a gun. Even the local police were afraid of him."

Beaussart's teachers and the social services also failed to step in, even though they were aware of what was happening.

"When Ida came to school with a spilt lip, I told her to go to see social services," Véronique Trouwaurt a childhood friend who hadn't seen Beaussart for 19 years told the paper.

"But nobody reacted."

Almost 20 years later some in the village still don't really feel they were completely to blame for having remained silent. One man, when interviewed, said it should have been the job of social services to intervene, as they knew what was happening.

In spite of her ordeal then, and the psychological and psychiatric treatment she underwent afterwards, Beaussart doesn't seem to hold a grudge.

"I understand why other villagers didn't react," she said. "Many of them had children and they must have been frightened of my father.

"But if people had perhaps had been a little braver, then yes they could have done something," she added.

And that was really the message the now mother-of-two, with a third on the way wanted to get across by the end of the evening - that others, elsewhere, break their silence if they are aware of similar cases of abuse.

"I don't want any other child to have to cry out like that and not to be heard."