Woman in France sentenced to life in prison for rape, torture and murder of 12-year-old girl in Paris
The woman who raped, tortured and murdered a 12-year-old girl in Paris three years ago was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Friday, CNN affiliate BFMTV reported.
27-year-old Algerian woman Dahbia Benkired must be sentenced to at least 30 years in prison Crimes against Lola DavietAccording to BFMTV’s report. BFMTV added that she was the first woman to receive the sentence in France, making it the harshest sentence under the French penal code.
In October 2022, Daviet’s body was found dismembered and stuffed in a plastic box in the common area outside the building where he lived, according to a statement from the Paris police prosecutor at the time.
The statement said the victim’s body was found just a few hours after she was first reported missing.
CCTV showed the schoolgirl entering her apartment with Benkired at 3.15pm on the day she was murdered. Less than two hours later, the killer was seen leaving the building alone with heavy luggage, the statement said.
According to the police prosecutor’s statement, Daviet died of cardiorespiratory failure with symptoms of suffocation and cervical compression.
“He also suffered numerous other injuries, particularly large lacerations to his face, back and neck, and this did not play a role in his death, based on the coroner’s conclusion as to the cause of death,” police said in a statement.
The statement said Benkired told police that he took Daviet to his sister’s apartment in the building where the victim lived.
Lola Daviet’s family embrace after the Paris Criminal Court sentenced Dahbia Benkired to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. – Frederic Munsch/SIPA/AP
He said he forced the girl to take a shower before “committing sexual assaults and other violence that resulted in her death,” before hiding the child’s body in a plastic box, according to a statement there.
In court on Friday, Benkired said his crimes were “horrible” and asked for forgiveness before negotiations took place, BFMTV reported.
In the statement made after the murderer’s sentence, Lola Daviet’s brother thanked the French justice system for the sentence given to Benkired and said that his family was “satisfied with the response we received”, according to BFMTV. The victim’s mother added that this was the case “even if he didn’t give our Lola back.”
Daviet’s family lawyer, Clotilde Lepetit, welcomed “a fair decision based on reason, humanity, truth and memory”, according to BFMTV.
“We restored this young girl’s memory. We restored a shattered reality,” he said, according to a source.
Benkired’s lawyer, Alexandre Valois, said Friday’s verdict was no surprise. He told reporters that he had not yet decided whether to appeal the murderer’s sentence, according to BFMTV.
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