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CRIME

Body of slain British expat found in well

A Frenchman has been arrested on suspicion of murdering his British neighbour whose body was found at the bottom of a well in a Normandy village.

Published: 10 April 2015 11:05 CEST
Body of slain British expat found in well
The village of Pierres in Calvados, Normandy, where the body of a British neighbour has reportedly been found.

Police have arrested a Frenchman suspected of killing his British neighbour by throwing him down a well near his home in Normandy.

The body of David King, 70, originally from London, was found at the bottom of the four-metre well in the village of Pierres by sniffer dogs on Wednesday.

The retired lorry driver had been missing since late October but police initially refused to open a missing persons case because they believed he had travelled abroad.

King's car was found abandoned in a nearby town in February.

The 28-year-old suspected of killing him was detained on Wednesday and told police he had had a row with his neighbour, said local prosecutor Carole Etienne.

"He admits he put the body in the well," she added, saying it was "highly probable" that the corpse was that of his British neighbour.

But "he has not yet explained the circumstances of the death. I have the before, I have the after, I don't have the in between."

Etienne said an autopsy would be carried out on the body of the Briton, who was believed to have been living in Normandy for the past 15 years.

The body of an Englishwoman, Patricia Wilson, who was believed to have been murdered in her home in 2012 in the south-western region of Aveyron, has never been found.

Her gardener, with whom she reportedly had an affair, has been in custody since August 2012 awaiting trial on charges of murdering her.

 

 

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CRIME

Two girls wounded in knife attack outside French school

An assailant on Thursday wounded two girls aged 6 and 11 in a knife attack close to their school in the east of France and was later arrested, officials said.

Published: 18 April 2024 16:33 CEST
Two girls wounded in knife attack outside French school

The 11-year-old was stabbed outside the school in the town of Souffelweyersheim, on the outskirts of Strasbourg, while the six-year-old was attacked by the same man nearby.

Both received superficial wounds, police said, adding the attacker did not appear to have any known links to radicals and was not previously known to the security services.

Both received superficial wounds, police said, adding the attacker did not appear to have any known links to radicals and was not previously known to the security services.

Both girls are being treated in a paediatric hospital. Parents were later in the afternoon allowed to pick up their children, who had been confined to the school in the immediate aftermath of the attack.

The attacker, born in 1995, was arrested in the area where he attacked the second girl, the police said. He no longer had the knife in his hand and did not resist arrest, it added.

The attack came as Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced a series of measures aimed at cracking down on violence committed by schoolchildren against their peers. There was no indication so far that the attacker had a link with the school.

“I’m really scared. We’ve been reassured that the children are safe inside, but we don’t know when we’ll be able to get them back,” Sarah, a mother of an eight-year-old pupil, told AFP before the green light was given to collect the children.

“A friend called me. She saw the commotion in front of the school as she passed by. Her reflex was to call me so that I could pick up my son.”

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