Patricia Cartier

Case information

Name: Patricia Cartier Role in case: defendant (wife)

Status

Patricia Cartier was sentenced to 10 years in prison on October 20, 2005. She was released on October 27, 2008.

Background

Patricia Cartier and Emmanuel Cartier were a French husband and wife. In 2002 they were convicted of deliberately injecting their five children with insulin, resulting in the death of one of their daughters. They argued in court that they were driven to commit their crime out of desperation caused by a €250,000 debt incurred on numerous credit cards and an assortment of consumer loans.

At the time of her trial, Patricia Cartier was 44 and worked as a carer for the elderly. Emmanuel Cartier was 37 and worked as a machine operator. The Cartiers were married for 15 years. They were described by a psychiatrist as "immature, emotionally insecure and depressed". They had combined earnings of about €2,634 a month. The court heard they juggled debts between a succession of credit companies while spending on electrical goods and clothing.

The offence

The court heard that the family went out for a meal at a local restaurant. On returning home the parents told their children they were giving them vaccinations for a holiday abroad. Patricia Cartier then gave the five children insulin injections, before giving herself the same injection.

The doses given were not fatal for four of the children or the mother. Eleven-year-old Alicia later died from the injection in hospital. Patricia Cartier told the court that she injected insulin taken from the old people's home where she worked into each of the children. She also said that she had used the last of the family's money to buy new clothes so that the children would be "nicely dressed when they reached the other side." She injected herself twice and panicked when Alicia developed breathing problems and called an ambulance.

Emmanuel Cartier attempted to slash his wrists. His attempts left him with no more than scratches.

Victims and their circumstances

The couple’s five children were Mederic (now 16), Alicia, Mathilde, Marina, and Thomas. The children were aged from 11 months to 13 years. Before the verdict, the doses administered by Patricia Cartier using seven syringes and three bottles of insulin proved too small to be lethal for the four surviving children.

Alicia later died in hospital after the injection.

The four surviving children were initially cared for by their grandmother, but the grandmother was killed in a road accident on the day Alicia died.

Investigation and arrest

The provided material did not describe an investigation or arrest process.

Trial

The Cartiers appeared at Beauvais court, north of Paris. They were charged with murder and attempted murder.

Legal arguments and courtroom statements

The lawyer Hubert Delarue appealed for clemency, saying the couple were driven to desperation and describing their situation as an "infernal spiral" of consumer spending and easily obtained credit.

Patricia Cartier stated in court that she injected insulin taken from the old people's home where she worked into each of the children and that she had used the last of the family's money to buy new clothes so that the children would be "nicely dressed when they reached the other side."

Emmanuel Cartier and Patricia Cartier were described in court as having many debts and consumer credit commitments. The court heard that before the trial they had six different bank accounts, 21 distinct consumer loans and 15 credit cards, and that after cash dispensing machines began to retain their cards Emmanuel Cartier had suggested that they should commit suicide. Patricia Cartier said: "But I said, 'Who will look after the children?'. I wanted to go with them, so that we would all be asleep together."

Before giving the injections to the children, Patricia Cartier told them it was "a vaccination for a holiday abroad".

Quote from the lawyer

Their lawyer Hubert Delarue said: "There are responsibilities, but it would be profoundly unjust if they were to bear them all."

Quote about consumer credit from Emmanuel Cartier

Before the trial, Emmanuel Cartier told the daily Libération that consumer credit was: "like the air you breathe: 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."

Sentencing

In 2005, a court in Beauvais sentenced Patricia Cartier to 10 years in prison. Emmanuel Cartier was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The material also indicated that the couple faced life imprisonment if convicted.

Appeals

The material stated that Hubert Delarue was appealing for clemency.

Outcome

Patricia Cartier was released on October 27, 2008.

Aftermath and impact

French philosopher Bernard Stiegler wrote about the Cartiers in Mécréance et Discrédit: Tome 2, Les sociétés incontrolables d'individus désaffectés (2006). An extract was published in English translation as The Disaffected Individual.

Before the verdicts were announced, the material described that there was no sign their surviving children had come to terms with their parents’ actions. Mederic (now 16) and Mathilde (nine-year-old sister) agreed to confront their parents after refusing to see them for three years. One report described a "dreadful face-to-face encounter between parents searching for the least sign of love and a boy and a girl visibly disinclined to forgive".

Other details

The provided material included that the Cartiers had 17 credit cards, with six cancelled by issuers, and they owed more than ?234,000 at the time they had decided on murder and suicide. It also stated that the Cartiers used a last cheque from one credit firm to buy new clothes for the children "so they'd be well dressed in the next world." It further stated that Patricia Cartier injected Alicia and that Alicia later died three weeks after the injection.