Il Nuovo Postiglione - Life term sought for French mother in daughter's starvation death

Sandrine Pissarra, 54, is charged with torture and barbarity against her daughter at her trial in the southern city of Montpellier.

Pissara should receive a life sentence and serve a minimum of 20 years behind bars, prosecutor Jean-Marie Beney in his summing up told the court, which is due to give its verdict later in the day.

When her daughter Amandine died on August 6, 2020, she weighed just 28 kilograms (62 pounds) while being 1.55 metres (5.1 feet) tall.

Amandine had suffered extreme weight and muscle loss as well as septicaemia, according to the medical report after her death.

She had also lost several teeth and had her hair pulled out. Amandine had been locked for weeks in a windowless storage room and deprived of food.

Since she was very young, Amandine has been the victim of blows, including with brooms, punches, kicks, hair pulling, repeated shouting, insults and jostling, Beney said.

For Pissarra, "domestic tyrant, dictator of the home, executioner of Amandine, there can only be one sentence -- a life term with a minimum of 20 years served in prison," said the prosecutor.

Questioned the day after her daughter's death in the village of Montblanc southwest of Montpellier, Pissarra said Amandine suffered from eating disorders -- a claim not confirmed by anyone else.

She said that on the day of her death, Amandine had agreed to swallow only a piece of sugar, a little compote and a high-protein drink before she started to vomit and then stopped breathing.

The mother, who had been running a nail salon, has eight children from three relationships. She has been in custody since May 2021.

The prosecutor also called for an 18-year prison sentence for Pissarra's ex-partner, Jean-Michel Cros, 49, terming him a "cowardly collaborator of the system" who "deprived Amandine of care until her death".

The investigating magistrate in charge of the case said in a report there was "no doubt" Amandine endured violence from her mother, "the sole purpose of which was to drag her into shameful and humiliating agony".

Amandine had from a young age been targeted by her mother, who deprived her of food, inflicted endless "writing punishments" on her and locked her in a storage room under the surveillance of cameras, it said.

According to the psychiatric assessment, Sandrine Pissarra, described by those around her as angry and violent, was seeking to "transfer her hatred" of Amandine's father onto her daughter's body.

Q.Bernardi--INP