During the school holidays, on August 10, 2024, a woman returning from a points recovery course returns home to Fitz-James (Oise)where she left her 11-year-old son with his partner. To his great surprise, the latter is not there. He went to his parents to Neuily-sous-Clermont. The child then confides to him that his stepfather left after getting angry with him because he didn’t do the dishesas was planned. He shows his swollen left eye as well as bruises on his arm and on his left wrist which he suffered while protecting himself from the belt blows he received.
The woman takes her son to the emergency room where the medical examiner grants him one day of total incapacity for work. In the days that followed, she filed a complaint with the gendarmes who interviewed Berthely Nzelomona, who admitted the violence with the exception of the belt beating. According to him, he would have wrapped the belt around his hand which he would have raised above the child without hitting him. He still said: “I’m not going to say he’s lying…”, which the prosecutor considers “almost like a confession“.
The man was in a recidivism state
It was only on January 21, almost five months after the crimes were committed, that the gendarmes came to take him into custody. He remains in his position: he did commit violence but without his belt. But what complicates his situation is his conviction by the Beauvais court on November 25, 2021, already for violence against this same child and his mother, which earned him an eight-month prison sentence, fully suspended. probationary with a ban on meeting his partner.
Despite this ban, after discussing it at length with his partner, he made the decision that they would live together again. He also had to follow addiction treatment for two years as well as psychological treatment which was interrupted due to the departure of the therapist. It was precisely during this interruption of psychological care that the acts were committed.
“I was unable to manage the stress and fatigue of my work”
He understands that the violence he committed will have psychological repercussions on the victim. He regrets them. “He didn’t deserve thishe said before the Beauvais court on Wednesday January 22 during his immediate appearance. I couldn’t handle the stress and fatigue of my job.” His lawyer, Emilie Mardyla, will indicate in her pleading that in August, the month in which the facts were committed, he received €2,500 in overtime, “what makes overwork credible“.
For the prosecutor, “he has already had a chance to do some soul-searching during his 2021 sentencing. If he is overworked by his job, it may be because he is unfit for the role. So that he does not start again, he needs firmness and reflection on himself.» He requires a sentence of sixteen months in prison, including eight months in prison with a committal warrant and eight months under probation.
Berthely Nzelomona avoids prison
Emilie Mardyla, defense lawyer, regrets that his parents with whom he took refuge immediately after the events were not heard. “They could have told what state of mind he was in when he arrived at their house and told them what he had just done. The employer was not heard about the workload either.” She finds that the requisitions are heavy for a fragile person like her client who pays €500 in child support for his three children and that without a job he will no longer be able to pay anything.
Berthely Nzelomona was sentenced to sixteen months in prison, including eight months under probation, with a ban on meeting the victim and appearing at her home and a ban on meeting her mother for three years. Added to this are obligations for psychological and addictological care for two years and a ban on possessing a weapon for five years. The court does not issue a committal warrant. A sentencing judge will be responsible for adjusting it.
