A creche worker was sentenced to 25 years in prison by a French court on Thursday for killing a newborn by forcing her to drink drain cleaner to stop her from crying.
The court in Lyon, a city in the southeast, found 30-year-old Myriam Jaouen guilty of “torture” and “barbarism resulting in death,” but not of murder.
Prosecutor Baptiste Godreau stated that there is an “unfathomable” component to the 2022 murder of infant Lisa and that Jaouen was “perfectly conscious” of her actions.
He said that the “heavy” sentence was needed to punish “the extreme seriousness of this act, for having taken the life of a defenseless child in a cowardly fashion, to protect society in a lasting way and to protect the interests of the family”.
Although the accused acknowledged giving Lisa the corrosive liquid while in police custody, she maintained that she had no intention of killing her.
She provided multiple versions before acknowledging during the trial that she had poured the product straight into the child’s mouth while holding her head. She claimed she could no longer stand the baby’s cries.
The lawyer for Baby Lisa’s parents stated following the trial that they were “shocked” that Jaouen had not been found guilty of murder.
The verdict “adds pain to pain,” Catherine Bourgade told reporters, adding that the parents “have the impression of having lost their child twice.”
“Who can put drain cleaner into the mouth of a child and then tell us that she didn’t mean to kill her?” Bourgade said, adding that she hoped the prosecution would appeal the verdict.
Following the incident, Godreau criticized the defendant’s “cowardice,” claiming that she showed no concern for the baby’s “agony” by not calling for help herself, discarding the bottle before her workday was over, and then going shopping.
Unshowing much emotion, Jaouen attended the proceedings with her back frequently hunched. The partially deaf woman, who had a challenging academic career and intermittent jobs in the field, was living with her parents at the time of the murder.
Jaouen was employed by the People and Baby business, a significant force in the French creche industry, to run the nursery despite her inexperience.
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On June 22, 2022, she was alone at the opening of the facility when Lisa’s father dropped off the infant.
A few minutes later, two women who had come to drop off their sons found the employee panicking and the child vomiting.
The girl, seriously burned, died hours later at the hospital where she was taken.
The death sparked outrage in France and triggered investigations by the government and media which highlighted shortcomings in the private daycare sector.
In their evidence at the trial, Lisa’s parents sought to highlight the responsibility of the defendant, whom they described as the “monster” who killed their daughter.
