A four-year-old boy was raped in a French jail by his mother and her partner, a court has been told. 
 
 Sabrina Bonner and Lionel Barthelemy, 31, allegedly covered the windows of a visiting room in the Toul detention centre, eastern France, to carry out the assault, the trial heard. 
 
 Berthelmy was serving a sentence for domestic violence. 
 
 According to the prosecution, the child was blindfolded by his mother, who then made him kneel on a chair and held him by the arms as Barthelemy raped his stepson. 
 
 Bonner claimed she took part in the rape and filmed herself abusing the boy at other times because she feared Barthelemy. Her co-defendant, who has been diagnosed as a paranoiud schizophrenic, confessed to carrying out the rape but claimed he did it under pressure from Bonner. 
 
 Evidence presented in court claimed that Bonner handed over video recordings, shot on a mobile phone, to Barthelemy of her sexually abusing the child on numerous occasions. 
 
 She appeared in the dock of a court in Strasbourg charged with multiple sexual offences. The boy, who has not been named, is in care. 
 
 Yannick Pheulpin said: "Mrs Bonner made herself an accomplice to the crime by bringing her son to the visiting room twice on the same day: once in the morning when a first rape took place and a second time in the afternoon, knowing perfectly well that it was going to happen again." 
 
 Also facing legal action could be prison authorities in Toul, after it emerged that it was standard practice for bin bags to be plastered over windows to allow couples to enjoy privacy during prison visits. Pheulpin said the prison should be held to account. 
 
 Bonner and Barthelemy face 20 years in prison if convicted. Her lawyer Dominique Bergmann said: "She will not try to minimise her responsibility," 
 
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 The Palais de Justice in Strasbourg, where the trial is taking place 
 
 A mother who allegedly helped her boyfriend rape her four-year-old son during a prison visit has gone on trial in France. 
 
 Sabrina Bonner, 25, and the boy's stepfather, Lionel Barthelemy, 31, are charged with multiple sexual assaults on the child, who is now eight and in care. 
 
 It has been claimed they carried out the rape in the prison after covering the windows of the meeting room with black bin liners. 
 
 Barthelemy has already admitted raping the boy, but he says that he only did so once after the act was prompted by Bonner. 
 
 The boy's mother is also accused of sexually assaulting the boy at other times, filming those attacks and giving the recordings to Barthelemy while he was in jail. 
 
 Schizophrenic Barthelemy was serving a three-year jail sentence for domestic abuse of his girlfriend at the time. 
 
 Bonner says the prison incident and other rapes she filmed were carried out after her partner threatened her with violence if she did not comply. 
 
 The trial, which is due to run for three days in Strasbourg, is threatening to expose a culture in French prisons which meant staff failed to notice an act of such brutality taking place. 
 
 It is understood that prisoners were often allowed a degree of privacy for visits from partners, even though Bonner's visit was supposed to be supervised because he was in jail for domestic violence and had been diagnosed with schizophrenic tendencies. 
 
 Yannick Pheulpin, a solicitor representing the boy, says that after the trial is over he may initiate action against the jail, in Toul, near Nancy, eastern France. 
 
 Bonner has admitted carrying out multiple sexual assaults on her child during 2009 and 2010, recording them on her mobile phone and giving the phone's memory card to her imprisoned partner. She gave herself up to police in May 2011, shortly before Barthelemy was due to be released from prison. 
 
 Her lawyer, Dominique Bergmann, said: "She will not try to minimise her responsibility." 
 
 The pair face up to 20 years in prison if convicted. 

 A French mother who allegedly held down her four-year-old son while he was raped by his step-father in a prison visiting room went on trial in Strasbourg on Monday. 
 
 In a case which could lead to the prison itself also facing legal action, Sabrina Bonner, 25, and the step-father, her partner Lionel Barthelemy, 31, are charged with multiple sexual assaults on the boy, who is now eight and in the care of social services. 
 
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 Barthelemy admits raping the child in the visiting room at the Toul detention centre in eastern France in February 2010, but claims it was an isolated act initiated by Bonner. 
 
 She claims the prison incident and other rapes which she filmed were carried out under orders and the threat of violence from her partner, who allegedly listened to one assault from his prison cell on his mobile phone. 
 
 The trial, which is due to run for three days, will shed light on why prison staff failed to stop, or even notice, an act of such brutality taking place during what was supposed to be a supervised visit to a prisoner serving a sentence for domestic violence who had been diagnosed as having schizophrenic tendencies. 
 
 Prosecutors have indicated they will present evidence that black bin bags were used to cover the glass window of the door to the room in which the visit took place and that, as in other French prisons, this was standard practice to allow prisoners privacy with their partners during visits. 
 
 Yannick Pheulpin, the advocate representing the little boy, said he intended, at the end of the trial, to initiate legal proceedings aimed at holding the prison to account for the suffering of the child. 
 
 The prosecution alleges that Bonner blindfolded her son and made him kneel on a chair in front of Barthelemy, then held him by the arms as he was raped. 
 
 "Mrs Bonner made herself an accomplice to the crime by bringing her son to the visiting room twice on the same day: once in the morning when a first rape took place and a second time in the afternoon, knowing perfectly well that it was going to happen again," Pheulpin said. 
 
 Bonner has admitted carrying out multiple sexual assaults on her child during 2009 and 2010, filming them on her mobile phone and giving the phone's memory card to her imprisoned partner. She gave herself up to police in May 2011, shortly before Barthelemy was due to be released from prison. 
 
 "She will not try to minimise her responsibility," her lawyer, Dominique Bergmann, said. 
 
 Bonner and Barthelemy face maximum prison terms of 20 years if convicted as charged.
– A mother in France is on trial for allegedly helping a man to rape her 4-year-old son. Sky News describes Lionel Barthelemy, 31, as the boy's stepfather but also as the boyfriend (not husband) of Sabrina Bonner, 25. Whatever the relationship, Bonner is accused of going to visit Barthelemy in prison with the boy; the man was serving a three-year sentence for domestic abuse. The two used trash bags to cover up the windows in the meeting room before Barthelemy allegedly raped the boy. The International Business Times says Bonner allegedly blindfolded the boy, made him kneel on a chair, and held his arms down during the attack. Barthelemy confessed to the rape, but said Bonner encouraged it. Bonner is also accused of sexually assaulting the boy, now eight, at other times, recording those attacks, and giving the imprisoned Barthelemy the recordings; in one case, AFP reports, Barthelemy allegedly listened to an assault from his cell on a mobile phone. But Bonner says those incidents, as well as the prison rape, were carried out only because Barthelemy threatened to hurt her if she didn't do what he wanted. At issue in the trial is why the visit was not supervised, as it should have been; a solicitor representing the boy may take action against the jail next. He also says Bonner brought the boy back to the prison after the alleged rape, "knowing perfectly well that it was going to happen again."