A 36-year-old father killed his 3-year-old son after stuffing him into a washing machine as punishment for misbehavour.
Christophe Champenois, rammed his the golden-haired son Bastien into the device and switched it on and then surfed the internet as the toddler died.
Champenois was jailed for 30 years while the toddler’s mother Charlene Cotte was jailed for 12 years, for “aiding and abetting murder and violence” on Friday, September 11, 2015.
He was told he would not be eligible for parole for at least 20 years.
Cotte disclosed to investigators that when her ex-husband removed Bastien from the machine and noticed he was no longer breathing, he said: “At least he won’t bother us anymore.”
It was Champenois himself who called emergency services in the town of Germigny-l’Eveque, east of Paris, in November 2011 and told them he had a “small problem” as his son had fallen down the stairs.
According to reports, Champenois said he had given his son a bath and that the child must have drowned because he had water coming out of his nostrils.
The deceased’s older sister, who was five, told the doctor: “Daddy put Bastien in the washing machine because he was naughty at school.”
She maintained her stance throughout the investigation.
A neighbour who came to the apartment to help described the child as “frozen, completely naked. He was all white, limp, practically like a toy.
Investigation revealed that Champenois never wanted Bastien and meted out harsh punishments on him for his increasingly agitated behaviour at home and at school to a point that he had even locked him in a cupboard.
Social services had been repeatedly alerted to the family’s case.
