Isabel Giménez, substitute magistrate of the court of first instance number 19 of Barcelona, has written a letter to the minor whose father, accused of sexist violence, claimed to be with her despite the restraining order issued against him. The sentence itself is not new, since, for almost three years, according to organic law 8/2021 on Comprehensive Protection of Children and Adolescents, and decree law 26/2021 that modified the Civil Code of Catalonia, it has been deprived of custody – and also of visits – to the parent involved in criminal proceedings. The judge's letter, however, is unusual due to its approach to a nine-year-old girl who has had to testify behind closed doors about her parents' fights. He thanks her for her courage and admits how painful and tiring it must have been to answer so many questions. “You have been very brave in telling us some of the things that scare you and that the reason you don't want to be with him is because you are very afraid that he will hurt your mother again,” she writes.
In the award-winning Anatomy of a Fall, a woman is tried as the alleged perpetrator of her husband's death and she declares at the trial: “Sometimes the couple is a kind of chaos and everyone is lost, right? Sometimes we fight together, sometimes alone, and sometimes against each other. Occurs". The viewer empathizes from the beginning with the character of a writer who shares a lonely house with her husband and son in the French Alps. But she sympathizes even more with the boy, blind, who witnesses the court sessions where he dissects and morally judges the life of his mother.
In one sequence, the minor is summoned by the judge, who tells him that she does not want him to attend the next session. That she may be too harsh for him since she cannot censor or muffle the statements because the truth must be gotten to. The boy responds with amazing maturity that he prefers to attend to find out firsthand.
The historic lawyer María José Varela does not doubt the law: “Judges must protect minors; In our legislations, the basic principle of any process lies in its interest. The important thing is that they get to court to be able to help the victims. The most paralyzing thing that violence brings is fear.” The nine-year-old girl to whom Judge Giménez has written a letter calling her “brave” refers to her father as “the man who was about to kill my mother.”
In the sentence handed down, Isabel Giménez also notifies the parent of the fine that will be imposed if he files a complaint again due to parental alienation syndrome (PAS), for which the General Council of the Judiciary affirms that “it lacks medical basis.” -scientist". SAP was coined by a psychiatry professor who argued that “children suffer from society's overreaction to pedophilia.” And not only did he encourage her, but he also treated the mothers who reported sexual abuse of their children by the father or another family member as hysterical.
So far this year seven children have been murdered by their parents. A larva of hatred, and also the will of evil, feed in the crossfire between a couple. Many of the attacks on women and children occur after separation, when the snack with video games has returned in the calm of the afternoon. I don't want to think about the mixture of stupefaction and horror that must hit the little boy before dying at the hands of his father or witnessing his mother's agony. Escaping from it is well worth a letter.
