In a Pathé cinema in Labège, near Toulouse, tensions escalated between two parents in January 2025. The violence was quickly subdued, but reignited outside. Confrontation of pains before the criminal court of Toulouse. An adventure story of maritime conquests, now turned violent. “From Vaiana 2, this young girl will only remember the darkness. Seeing her father lying on the ground, unconscious, maybe dead. And her brother injured, with a shattered jaw,” sums up Lawyer Camélia Dilmi in one sentence an evening of celebration that turned into a brawl at the beginning of 2025 in front of the cinema in Labège, near Toulouse.
“A child was hitting the chair. I asked to stop, once. The second time, this woman exploded, five minutes of insanities,” recalls a father. “She attacked me,” defends the mother, a young woman whose tense face reflects a true tension before the judges. The conflict was calmed, but Priscilia, 25, called her partner. He waited outside.
Fractured jaw, sufferings and nightmares. “Two men assaulting a woman, that deserved explanations,” specifies Richard, 30. Under his shirt, this boxer has the physique of an athlete. His victims are also athletes, but they did not see it coming. “For me, this story was over,” says the father. At the cinema exit, he did not see the partner coming from behind, with a strong punch that immediately knocked him out. His son, also stunned, managed to free the young woman who was hitting his unconscious father “like a hammer.”
“The pain came later, once at the hospital,” recalls the athletic young man. “The pain was terrible. A night of horror despite the morphine…” Double jaw fracture (30 days of legal incapacity), suffering, rehabilitation, and nightmares still haunting his nights. “When I go out, I am not comfortable. I am scared. And I wonder if I would be able to intervene in case of difficulty. Or walk away to avoid another story.”
The video of the incident rekindles his anxieties. Tears that he quickly wipes away to face the audience, support his father who still blames himself. “I couldn’t protect my son or my daughter.” A blonde head sits quietly in the room, next to her mother. She saw everything, vomited on the spot “due to stress,” notes Lawyer Dilmi. She is accompanied by a psychologist, like her brother. Their father rejects the idea and keeps his anxieties bottled up at home, far from the dark rooms.
When the assailant apologizes, his partner closes up, with a dark look. The president tries to understand. Nothing comes out. “This woman, placed in foster care from the age of 3, grew up without parents in institutions. It was not always easy. Today, she is silent because, in reality, she is scared. Scared of her past, of reproaches, of the image that this case portrays of her role as a single mother raising her daughter,” reveals her lawyer, Lawyer Marjolaine Grauteau.
Lawyer Margaux Boiteau accompanies “an educator for troubled children, a hairdresser who teaches boxing. Who knows how to keep calm, but lost it tonight. He acknowledges it. And admitting it is already a lot, a first step.” The advisor wants to prevent the court from depriving him of his role as an educator “which he exercises with patience and which we need.”
At the end of a brief deliberation, the court follows the prosecution’s requests: three years in prison for the two defendants, including two years on probation. They will have to pay significant damages to be determined later. And Richard can no longer work with minors.
