A French mother who held down her four-year-old son while he was raped by his stepfather in a prison visiting room was sentenced to a maximum 20 years in jail.
Her partner, 31-year-old Lionel Barthelemy, who has been jailed since August 2009 for violence, also received the same sentence from the court in Strasbourg, eastern France.
Both Sabrina Bonner, 25, and Barthelemy have admitted to multiple counts of rape and sexual assault of the boy, now eight.
Some of the assaults, including the rape in the visiting room at the Toul detention centre in eastern France, had been filmed on a mobile phone.
“The behaviour of Sabrina B. is not even that of an animal towards its child,” said prosecutor Gilles Delorme, who also described Barthelemy as “a sadist in the purest form”.
At the detention centre, Bonner had blindfolded her son and made him kneel on a chair in front of Barthelemy, then held him by the arms as he was raped.
The case had raised questions over why prison staff failed to stop, or even notice, an act of such brutality taking place during what was supposed to be a supervised visit to a prisoner serving a sentence for domestic violence, who had been diagnosed as having schizophrenic tendencies.
Investigators had found that black bin bags were used to cover the glass window of the door of the visiting room.
Yannick Pheulpin, the lawyer representing the victim, said he intended, at the end of the trial, to initiate legal proceedings aimed at holding the prison to account for the suffering of the child.
Psychiatrist Jean-Pierre May told the court that the couple had a “sado-masochist relationship” in which each took turns to be “master” and “slave”.
“It is hard to determine who used the other more” during the savage acts carried out on the boy, said another expert, Jean-Georges Rohmer.
Bonner has admitted carrying out multiple sexual assaults on her child during 2009 and 2010, filming them on her mobile phone and giving the phone’s memory card to her imprisoned partner.
She gave herself up to police in May 2011, shortly before Barthelemy was due to be released from prison.
Bonner has claimed that she carried out the assaults under the orders and threat of violence from Barthelemy.
Aye sah, ah doah even know whey fi stawt…… Mi ah try not to get upset tiddeh, so mek mi duss cut an guh chue…… I will say this much ….. I HOPE SHE ROTS IN HELL!!!! Both of them, but she is far worse
This woman did not deserve a trial, they should’ve just killed her execution style. Poor child, scarred for life!
OMG a read an tears a come 🙁 WTF is right! death is too good fi shi dem fi maime an torture dis witch repeatedly
crimes like this deserve death
She deserve POTASSIUM CHLORIDE DIRECTLY INA HAR VEIN PON DI SPOT..Jail time too good. I’m beyond repulsed.
People like this witch doesn’t deserve to have kids. How can a mother sit there and watch her child being raped by a man?? Sick sick
The government fi lock her up fi life and tek out har womb so no other child go through the hell she put this on through.
I am beyond speechless. I had to read that article in stages since I couldn’t stomach to read the level of evilness that was visited upon that child. I truly believe the court system let this child down once again. I pray for him.
It is sick. But certain countries nuh inna di life sentence business them believe inna rehabilitation via prison.wonder how much time the sick husband has. Ppl like these other prisoners fi deal wid them!
What I would like to know is if it’s the first time he doing this to the boy because I don’t understand why she didn’t let him sex har in her a***. That gal is sick.
This bring just tears to mi yeye, how could a woman wah feel pain to this to a baby????4 years old??? Oh Lord have mercy! I am beyond heartbroken, 20 years is not justify she should be hanged and the man beheaded or shot…Oh Lord, mi heart break fi the baby.