French pair accused of murdering son by shutting him in washing machine
A couple have gone on trial in France accused of murdering their three-year-old son by putting him in the washing machine and switching it on.
The case has shocked France and raised questions about child protection policies, as the family was known to social services. Three reports of a child in danger and nine of worrying information had been filed before the alleged murder.
Christophe Champenois, 37, who is charged with murder, told the court he had no memory of putting his son, Bastien, into the top-loading washing machine on 25 November 2011.
The court heard he placed the child in the machine and switched on the spin cycle. Champenois is said to have then put on a wash cycle that lasted between 30 minutes and an hour.
The boy died from the impact of the spin cycle, rather than from drowning, the trial in Melun was told. Bastien screamed for five to 10 minutes while his father looked on the internet and the boy’s mother, Charlene Cotte, 29 – who is charged with aiding and abetting the murder – did a jigsaw puzzle with their five-year-old daughter, it is alleged.
“At the moment I don’t remember anything,” Champenois told the court, after giving various explanations of what happened during the investigation.
Just after Bastien’s death, he called the emergency services from the family’s small flat in Germigny-l’Eveque, east of Paris, and said he had a small problem as his son had fallen down the stairs. Champenois said he had given him a bath and the toddler must have drowned because he had water coming out of his nostrils.
But the couple’s daughter told the emergency services: “Daddy put Bastien in the machine.”
French pair accused of murdering son by shutting him in washing machine
