Céline Lesage was 38 when she stood trial in March 2010 before the Cour d'assises de la Manche, the regional criminal court for the Manche department in Normandy, sitting in the town of Coutances. She was charged with the deaths of six newborn children, born between 2000 and 2007, and she did not dispute that she was responsible. On the evening of Thursday, March 18, 2010, jurors sentenced her to 15 years of réclusion criminelle, the French term for a term of criminal imprisonment, with 10 years of socio-judicial follow-up to run after her release.
Six births and six deaths in separate years, two partners, an admission in open court, a disagreement among experts about the risk of repetition, and a verdict a year short of what prosecutors had requested: those are the outlines of the case. Little is on record about her childhood or working life, and nothing is on record about her after the sentence.
Valognes is a small town in the Manche department of Normandy, in northwest France. It was the town where Lesage lived through the period of the case. She was described as shy, and investigators saw no apparent mental problems in her.
She had a son from an earlier relationship. The five older children whose deaths were charged were the children of her first partner, with whom she lived for 14 years. The sixth was the child of a later partner, with whom she began living in 2006. Both men were cleared of any part in the deaths. Neither was charged as an accomplice, and the inquiry into the first partner was dropped after he was held for questioning following her arrest.
The charges covered six separate births, and the court treated each as a separate killing. The earliest of the deaths came in 2000 and the last in 2007; the span is also given as August 2000 to September 2007.
Five of the children were born over the years of her relationship with her first partner and the sixth during her later relationship. Lesage told investigators that she was responsible for each death. At the opening of the trial, questioned by the presiding judge, she told the court that the children had been born alive. The defense did not contest the facts. Her lawyer, Véronique Carré, said that her client believed she was responsible, but not guilty, and that Lesage did not dispute what had happened but did not explain it either.
Lesage gave two kinds of answer over the course of the trial. In court she said that she acknowledged the facts and was aware that she had killed her children, but that she could not say why. She also said that she had never had a sense of committing a crime, and that she had believed she had no other solution because the men in her life did not want children and she feared the reaction of her own parents.
Lesage was arrested in October 2007 in Valognes and held in custody from that month. Her first partner was questioned and the inquiry against him was closed. He gave evidence at the trial as an ordinary witness on Tuesday, March 16, 2010.
She was charged with aggravated homicide (also given as aggravated voluntary homicide); in French the charge was meurtres aggravés, aggravated murders, in the plural. The maximum penalty was life imprisonment.
The trial opened on Monday, March 15, 2010, and was scheduled for four days. Hervé Locu presided. The prosecution was represented by the advocates general Eric Bouillard and Sarah Huet. The court sat in Coutances (the place is also given as Valognes).
On the first day Lesage spoke in a soft voice and said, "I acknowledge the facts." The presiding judge told her that the court was there to try to understand her before judging her. During questioning she broke down in tears, and in the hours before the verdict she told the court, "Yes, I killed the babies," and added that she could not explain it.
Her account of her relationship with her first partner also came before the court. She said that she had been afraid of him. The investigation found no evidence of a domineering attitude on his part. The man was a witness, not a defendant, and the court made no finding against him.
The father of the sixth child took part in the trial as a civil party, the status under French law that lets a victim's relative take part in the proceedings alongside the prosecution. He asked for a fair punishment, so that she could reform.
The experts did not recognize any psychiatric disorder in her.
They disagreed about the risk of a repeat offense, a point that weighed heavily with the jurors. The prosecution did not consider it certain that she had fully measured the reality of what she had done, and it wanted psychiatric care to form part of any sentence.
The prosecutors asked for 16 years of réclusion criminelle with a security period of eight years, a period during which early release cannot be sought. The jurors, who deliberated for several hours, returned a sentence of 15 years of réclusion criminelle on Thursday, March 18, 2010, and added 10 years of socio-judicial follow-up. The follow-up was expected to carry an obligation of psychiatric care, and the sentence fell below the prosecution's requisitions. She showed no emotion on hearing it.
The case followed that of Véronique Courjault, whom a court in Tours had convicted in June 2009 for the deaths of three of her newborn children, sentencing her to eight years in prison.
The parties had fifteen days in which to appeal, and at the time neither side appeared to intend to do so. An appeal, a second trial or the outcome of one is not on record. Her release date, any conditional release, and her present circumstances are not on record.
2000 to 2007: the six births and deaths on which the charge rests.
2006: she separates from her first partner and begins living with a later partner.
October 2007: Lesage is arrested in Valognes and held in custody.
March 15, 2010: trial opens before the Cour d'assises de la Manche, sitting in Coutances.
March 16, 2010: her first partner gives evidence as a witness.
March 18, 2010: verdict, 15 years of réclusion criminelle and 10 years of socio-judicial follow-up.
After March 2010: appeal, release and present circumstances are not on record.