Marie-Charlotte Renault, who is accused of murdering her four-year-old daughter Rose Pizem together with her partner Ronny Ron, who is also the child's grandfather, told the Petah Tikva District Court on Wednesday that she did not admit in her police interrogation that Ron had told her Rose was dead because "it was easier not to tell. I couldn’t inform on Ronny, I couldn't betray him."
At no stage in her testimony did Renault take responsibility for her conduct in the raising of her daughter. Asked why she had told the police bad things about Rose, she replied, "What did you want me to tell the investigators, that I don't know where my daughter is? I closed myself up, I erased her away. I had to do it in order to get through the investigation stage."
She added, "I have been in prison for 14 months now, and I can't understand how anyone would think that I did something bad to my daughter. I never could imagine that I may hurt her. All I wanted for her was happiness. I could never want my daughter to die. I couldn't persuade Ronny to do anything. He controls and does whatever he wants alone, without anyone's control."
Children taken to 'Hooters'
During the discussion the mother continued to sob, as she had done in previous discussion, saying that only when she was arrested she managed to internalize the fact that her daughter was no longer alive.
"Today I know that I must continue my life without Rose, and I don’t know how I'll be able to do that. If Rose were alive, she would be six years old today and would have to go to school," Renault said. "Everything I do, I do in relation to her. I haven't seen my two other daughters for 14 months now. I no longer live, no longer sleep, I will never be able to take Rose to dancing and ballet lessons. This is the end."
Renault continued to reveal details about the family's distorted conduct. She said that in May 2008, she and Ron took Rose and her two half-sisters to the "Hooters" restaurant in Netanya. "It was a weird restaurant, and the waitresses were nearly naked," she noted.