7 Tried for Four-Year-Old's Torture
10:47 PM ET 09/28/99
EPINAL, France (AP) - Prosecutors charge that his family used him as a punching
bag, made him sleep in a pigsty when he wet the bed, and wanted to kill him to stop him
crying. The parents of Johnny Grenglet, aged four at the time, and five other family
members, went on trial in this town in eastern France Tuesday for torture and abuse. They
face up to 30 years in jail. Police were alerted to Johnny in 1996 when a carpenter who
had come for the payment of a bill saw him crouched in a corner of the kitchen, his face
badly swollen.
He was found to have multiple bruises from kicks and punches, was
undernourished, and had often been made to sleep with pigs, the court was told.
The accused, including Johnny's grandmother, aunts and uncles, showed little
remorse and few signs of emotion Tuesday. There were frequent gasps from the public as
details of the violence emerged. A psychologist told the court that the family had
``played a game'' of who could inflict the most violence on the child. All seven - and
Johnny - lived in the same house.
Marie-France Coq, the child's aunt, said Tuesday she had been ``numb when he
cried ... and gradually everybody wanted to kill him.''
Johnny's mother, Sandra Grenglet, said she detested the child because he was
born during a short, previous relationship with another man, and not her current husband,
Rene. Rene also hated the child for that reason, the court was told.
Johnny, now seven and living with a foster family with his three-year-old
sister, was not present in court, but could be summoned to testify later in the week,
court officials said.
