French mother on trial accused of starving teen daughter to death

A woman went on trial in France on Monday accused of starving to death her daughter who died of a heart attack aged 13 in 2020.

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

The court is expected to give its verdict by Friday at the latest and Pissarra could face life in prison if convicted.

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

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

She had also lost several teeth and had her hair pulled out.

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 the day before 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, a former waitress who has eight children from three relationships, has been in custody since May 2021.

Her partner since 2016, Jean-Michel Cros, 49, is being tried alongside her and risks 30 years in prison for having "deprived his stepdaughter of care or food" and having done nothing to "save her from certain death", according to the indictment seen by AFP.

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.

The most serious incidents took place from March 2020 with the first Covid lockdown, when the young girl stopped going to school.

© Agence France-Presse