COPY LINK

CRIME

Woman charged in Paris over 12-year-old’s brutal murder

Paris investigators on Monday charged a woman suspected of raping and murdering a 12-year-old girl whose body was found in a trunk on Friday, a source close to the case told AFP.

Published: 17 October 2022 16:01 CEST
Updated: 18 October 2022 09:31 CEST

Woman charged in Paris over 12-year-old's brutal murder

Bouquets of flowers on display at the Parisian building where Lola, a 12 year-old schoolgirl who was found dead (Photo by Geoffroy Van der Hasselt / AFP)

The main suspect, identified as a 24-year-old woman suffering from psychiatric disorders, was questioned earlier Monday alongside an older man suspected of sheltering her.

The 24-year-old has been charged with the rape and murder of a minor aged under 15 along with torture and abuse, the source said.

A judge ordered that she be held in provisional custody.

Prosecutors said in a press release Monday that under questioning, the woman made “varying statements, switching between admitting and denying the facts of the case.”

But she eventually said she had brought the girl — identified only by her first name, Lola — to her sister’s apartment in the same building, where she forced her to take a shower.

The woman said she had then “committed harm of a sexual nature and other violent acts against (Lola) that caused her death, and hid her body in the trunk,” prosecutors said.

According to the autopsy, the young girl died due to “cardio-respiratory failure with signs of asphyxia and cervical compression”.

Other non-fatal wounds were found on her face and back as well as large gashes on her neck, and the numbers 0 and 1 were written in red on the soles of each of her feet.

“Investigations are continuing to determine exactly what happened (and) to establish the criminal responsibility of the people involved,” prosecutors added.

The suspect’s lawyer Alexandre Silva expressed sympathy for Lola’s family, before calling on the press not to report “rumours” and insisting on the presumption of innocence for his client.

The 43-year-old man also questioned in custody on Monday admitted that he brought the 24-year-old woman to his home with the trunk and two suitcases, where he said she stayed for two hours before leaving again in a chauffeur-driven car he had called for her.

Spotted on CCTV

The main suspect was arrested on Saturday in Bois-Colombes in Paris’ northwestern suburbs, after investigators tracked her movements on CCTV cameras from the building and the surrounding area as well as using phone records and physical searches.

Lola’s parents had called police after their daughter did not return from middle school on Friday afternoon.

Her father, the custodian in the building, was unsettled by seeing the unknown woman enter the building in Paris’ 19th district alongside his daughter when he checked the CCTV recordings.

An eyewitness who also saw the suspect at the scene said that she had offered him money to help her move a large trunk, several media outlets reported.

But a homeless man was the first to discover the body, which sources familiar with the investigation said was hidden under cloths in a plastic box in the building’s courtyard.

Six people, including the suspect’s sister and others who had contact with her in the time immediately following the killing, have so far been placed in custody in relation to the case, with four since released.

‘Time for mourning’

Local residents placed flowers at the gate of the family’s building over the weekend.

Meanwhile, school authorities have announced they will set up psychological aid for staff and pupils at Lola’s school and others in the area.

One mother told AFP that her daughter, another pupil who knew Lola by sight, was “not doing well today, she doesn’t want to go to school.”

“Today it’s time for mourning and for the investigation, which seems to be progressing quickly,” 19th district mayor Francois Dagnaud said during a visit to the Georges-Brassens school.

“What’s important is that the main suspect for now has been arrested, there’s no psychopath roaming the streets of this neighbourhood,” he added after local parents reported fears for their children’s safety.

“Of course, the fact that a 12-year-old child can die in such circumstances is overwhelming for everybody,” he added, saying that counselling would also be offered to local residents.

Member comments

Become a Member to leave a comment.

The French Jewish community, the third largest in the world, has for months been on edge in the face of a growing number of attacks and desecrations of memorials.

“National police in Rouen neutralised early this morning an armed individual who clearly wanted to set fire to the city’s synagogue,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Police responded at 6.45 am to reports of “fire near the synagogue”, a police source said.

A source close to the case told AFP the man “was armed with a knife and an iron bar, he approached police, who fired. The individual died”.

“It is not only the Jewish community that is affected. It is the entire city of Rouen that is bruised and in shock,” Rouen Mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol wrote on X.

He made clear there were no other victims other than the attacker.

Two separate investigations have been opened, one into the fire at the synagogue and another into the circumstances of the death of the individual killed by the police, Rouen prosecutors said.

Such an investigation by France’s police inspectorate general is automatic whenever an individual is killed by the police.

The man threatened a police officer with a knife and the latter used his service weapon, said the Rouen prosecutor.

The dead man was not immediately identified, a police source said.

Asked by AFP, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office said that it is currently assessing whether it will take up the case.

France has the largest Jewish community of any country after Israel and the United States, as well as Europe’s largest Muslim community.

There have been tensions in France in the wake of the October 7th attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel, followed by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Red hand graffiti was painted onto France’s Holocaust Memorial earlier this week, prompted anger including from President Emmanuel Macron who condemned “odious anti-Semitism”.

“Attempting to burn a synagogue is an attempt to intimidate all Jews. Once again, there is an attempt to impose a climate of terror on the Jews of our country. Combating anti-Semitism means defending the Republic,” Yonathan Arfi, the president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF). wrote on X.

France was hit from 2015 by a spate of Islamist attacks that also hit Jewish targets. There have been isolated attacks in recent months and France’s security alert remains at its highest level.