The former head of the Bolbec fire station was given a six-month suspended prison sentence on Monday by the Le Havre Criminal Court. The man, who is now retired, was prosecuted for psychological harassment of three firefighters. The court recognised only two of the three firefighters as victims of harassment: Renaud Blanc and Stéphane Burel. The former station chief must also pay €10,000 in damages to Stéphane Burel and €7,000 to Renaud Blanc.
Their battle had been going on for 13 years. Three volunteer firefighters – Renaud Blanc, Dominique and Stéphane Burel – wanted it to be recognised that they had been victims of harassment by their former station commander. This took place at the Bolbec fire station.
Any firefighter who wasn’t toeing the line was singled out by the station commander, who made sure they went through hell, Renaud Blanc, a former volunteer firefighter in Bolbec
Franceinfo:
We find ourselves in highly hierarchical environments where the duty to obey and follow orders is extremely strong, which makes it very difficult to bring this sort of behaviour to light. François Bleykasten, lawyer for the Bolbec volunteer fire brigade
Franceinfo:
Back in 2015, the victims secured a ruling from the administrative court ordering SDIS 76, the Seine-Maritime departmental emergency services centre, to pay them compensation for the harm they had suffered.
As regards the criminal proceedings, the case took numerous twists and turns until a ruling by the Court of Cassation led to the trial held in January 2019.