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CRIME

Mum of drowned toddler charged with murder

The mother of a toddler who was found dead in northern France has been charged for first-degree murder, her lawyer said, after the accused herself admitted to killing the 15-month-old child.

Published: 30 November 2013 22:34 CET
Mum of drowned toddler charged with murder
Residents of Berck-sur-Mer pay homage to the dead toddler found on the beach. Photo: Francois Lo Presti

"She was charged for first-degree murder, that is, premeditated murder," lawyer Fabienne Roy-Nansion said.

The woman was arrested in a Paris suburb on Friday, nine days after a public appeal for her whereabouts following the November 20 discovery of the
girl's body on a beach in northern France.

Prosecutors say the woman has admitted that she travelled with her daughter to the coastal town of Berck-sur-Mer with the intention of killing her.

"She left the child alive on the beach as the tide was rising," said the prosecutor in a statement.

The body of the girl was found by fishermen and an autopsy suggests that she drowned.

"She realises what she has done," said the woman's lawyer. "She expresses remorse" and "is not trying to find excuses," she added.

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CRIME

French teen dies from heart failure after knife attack near school

A 14-year-old girl has died of a heart attack in eastern France after her school locked down to protect itself from a knife attacker who lightly wounded two other girls, an official said on Friday.

Published: 20 April 2024 08:58 CEST
French teen dies from heart failure after knife attack near school

The teenager “was rescued by teachers who were very fast to call the fire department. She died at the end of the afternoon,” education official Olivier Faron said.

The girl’s middle school in the village of Souffelweyersheim closed its doors on Thursday afternoon after a man stabbed two other girls aged 7 and 11 outside a nearby primary facility.

“Sadly this pupil underwent an episode of very high stress that led to a heart attack,” Faron said.

A mother outside the middle school on Friday morning said her son in first year of secondary had also been scared during the lockdown the previous day.

“Whereas in the primary school they made it more like a game, perhaps here it was a little too direct,” Deborah Wendling said.

“He thought there was an armed person in the school. They could hear doors slamming, but in fact it was just other classrooms locking down.”

Faron defended the teachers.

READ ALSO: Schoolgirl threatens teacher with knife as tensions rise in French schools

“There is no perfect solution,” he said.

But “we will analyse in depth what happened. If there are lessons to be taken from this, we will take them.”

The two girls hurt in the attack were discharged from hospital on Thursday evening with only light wounds.

Police have arrested the 30-year-old assailant, and a probe has been opened into “attempted murder of minors”, the prosecutor’s office said.

It was not immediately clear what had motivated him, but it did not appear to be “a terrorist act”, it said.

He was “psychiatrically fragile” and appeared to have stopped his medication.

The incident follows a series of attacks on schoolchildren by their peers, in particularly the fatal beating earlier this month of Shemseddine, 15, outside Paris.

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal on Thursday announced measures to crack down on teenage violence in and around schools.

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