Claudine de Culam

Claudine de Culam (Rozay-en-Brie (Île-de-France); 1585-idem; 1601) was a young French woman, sentenced to hang and then burned next to the dog with the who had sexual relations (zoophilia). She is the first reference to a death penalty case for this reason.

Criminal trial of Claudine de Culam

This account of events is based on the sentence passed by Parliament on October 15, 1601.

Accusation and statement of Claudine

On Tuesday, September 7, 1601, at the request of the complaint presented by the public prosecutor of Rozay-en-Brie, the judge and the mayor of said town brought before them the accused who, for having refused to appear voluntarily, she had to be apprehended by court agents. The formal accusation was that of carnal cohabitation with a dog.

Questioned about her name, age and occupation, she said her name was Claudine de Culam, she was 16 years old and she worked as a maid in the house of the prior of Revecourt, in whose service she had been for four years. She was then asked if she had had carnal copulation with a white dog with black spots, which she was shown, she replied that she did not know what she meant, after which she was taken to prison.

Witness evidence

On Wednesday, September 15, the witnesses who accused the maid Claudine appeared and, after swearing to tell the truth, stated the following:

• The first witness, David Bonamy, the hosteler of this city, said that the day of the feast of St.Louis was visiting at the home of the prior of Revecourt. As he passed through the courtyard he saw the maid in carnal copulation with the white dog, but that, not daring to say anything to the prior, he spoke only with Jeanne Dubois, the widow of Culam, who did not want to believe him, holding that his daughter was too serious and innocent to do that and was surely wrong.

• The second witness, Marie Neufbois, wife of Mathieu Gourdim, a blacksmith, stated that he had seen Claudine playing and fondling the back legs in an indecent way the white dog and that she herself had reproached her attitude.

• The third witness, Nicolas Perrautelle, a servant of the prior, declared that on 1 September, when he entered the hall of the lord prior, he found Claudine lying on his bed, and that the dog was on top of it. But when he entered the salon, Claudine threw the dog down and dropped his skirts. The dog kept insisting and trying to lift Claudine's skirts with his muzzle, and Nicholas, approaching the animal, hit him with a splash. From the blow, the animal shook and cried, which caused Claudine to shout to him: "Why do you hit my dog and mix in my business?" After this, Nicolas replied that it was shameful that such indecent things were allowed to be done, especially in the case of a dog.

On Friday, September 17, Jeanne Dubois, widow of Culam and neighbor of Rozay, appeared before the court, who, after taking the appropriate oath, declared that her daughter Claudine was innocent, simple and without malice, and that she was the She envies what had moved the witnesses who testified against her, and that with respect to what Nicolas Perrautelle said, all the staff at Mr. Prior's house knew that he was in love with Claudine but that she had never wanted to listen to him. After this, Jeanne asked the court to have her daughter studied by midwives and to report what had really happened.

Expert evidence and confession

The court order was given to the midwife Jeanne L. Picarde, widow of Thomas Brehault, who accompanied by Genevieve, wife of André Girard, the apothecary, and Guillemeutte, wife of Michel F., surgeon, on September 21, so that they could examine Claudine and then inform the judges about the result.

The testimony of the three women, after having taken an oath to tell the truth, was that they planned to visit Claudine in the room to which she was taken together with the white dog, with which she was accused of having carnally copulated., but after having stripped Claudine to check if she had cohabited with a male, the dog jumped on her and tried to get to know her carnally. Thus it was confirmed that they had sexual relations and that "again there would have been a new coupling at that time if they had not acted to prevent it", after which, the three women made Claudine dressed and wrote their report according to the truth and their conscience.

Brought on October 22 to the presence of her judges and after having read the statements of the witnesses and the report of the three midwives, the accused fell on her knees and confessed to having had carnal cohabitation with the dog and that she deserved to be punished., then adding that she was three months pregnant and that she begged the court to postpone the trial and execution until she had given birth, after which the judges sent the accused to prison based on the conclusions of the prosecutor.

Failure

When the court ordered the examination of Claudine by the three midwives to determine if her pregnancy was true, the report was negative, adding in their report that they had never seen a vulva as mistreated as this one. After which the accused was convicted, convicted and confessed, of the crime of having carnally cohabited with the dog, and the sentence was that she would be strangled and burned alive in the large square of the town of Rognon, and her ashes thrown into the wind. In addition, her personal property would be confiscated for the benefit of whoever owned it, deducting, however, the sum of ten pounds as a fine for the king, and this sentence was issued on October 4, 1601.

The Court of Parliament rectified the sentence in the sense that Claudine, convicted and confessed of the crime of bestiality committed with her dog, would be hanged on the scaffold in the large square of Rognon, together with the dog, and that the corpses Both of them would then be thrown into the fire so that their ashes would then be fanned, so that no possible trace of those raids would remain and thus humanity would not remember their monstrous misdeeds.