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Debt desperation leads child's death, court told
18/10/2005 14:16:00
A French couple tired to lethally inject their children after consumer debts got out of control, the Guardian reported.
Emmanuel and Patrica Cartier appeared in a North Paris courtroom charged with murder and attempted murder after injecting five of their children. Their daughter Alicia died shortly afterwards in hospital. Four others survived.
Despite earning just €1,300 a month each, the couple had racked up 21 personal loans, 15 credit cards and six bank accounts. The couple spent substantial sums on their children, who they spoilt with PCs, video game systems and televisions.
Mr Cartier had told the French daily Liberation that obtaining the money was pleasurable: "You see an attractive ad, you call up. You get a form, you fill it in. The cheque arrives in the post 48 hours later. You never see or speak to anyone. You repay so little you barely notice. It gives you the feeling life is sweet."
But by August 2002, the debt collectors were called in on the Cartiers. Investigators discovered that one of their last purchases was of clothes for the children, so they would be well-dressed in the afterlife. Mrs Cartier told her kids that the injection was to protect them on a forthcoming holiday.
If found guilty, Mr and Mrs Cartier could be sentenced with life in prison.
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