An Algerian woman who raped, tortured and killed a 12-year-old French schoolgirl has been sentenced to life imprisonment.
Dahbia Benkired, 27, was handed the maximum possible penalty by a Paris court for the killing of Lola Daviet, making her the first woman to receive a full life term in France.
The week-long trial into the 2022 killing caused political outrage after Benkired was found to have overstayed a student visa and failed to comply with a notice to leave the country.
Benkired forcibly lured Lola into her sister’s apartment in the north east of Paris, where she raped, tortured and killed the schoolgirl.
The 12-year-old died by asphyxiation after she was bound with duct tape.
Benkired then stuffed her body in a suitcase and took it to a cafe, where she told a customer she was “selling a kidney” when he remarked on her suspicious luggage.
Despite pleas from the parents not to politicise their daughter’s death, Lola’s murder was exploited by Right-wing politicians and anti-migrant campaigners.
Éric Pauget, of the Right-wing Les Républicains, said she had been killed as a result of France’s weakness on immigration.
Before the verdict, the prosecution called for a sentence commensurate with the suffering of the victims and the seriousness of the crimes committed.
“The sentence must ensure the protection of society, prevent the commission of new offences and restore social balance,” the prosecution requested.
Three magistrates and six jurors found the defendant guilty of the murder of a minor and the “rape of a minor with torture or barbaric acts”.
In France, an act of sexual penetration of any kind, committed on another person by violence, coercion, threats or surprise, is considered rape.
Delphine Daviet, Lola’s mother, and Thibault, Lola’s brother, embraced after the sentencing of Dahbia Benkired – Louis Sibille/AFP
In the verdict, the presiding judge cited the “extreme cruelty of the criminal acts”, describing them as “true torture”.
He said: “In determining the appropriate sentence, the court took into account the unspeakable psychological damage to the victim and her family in such violent and almost unspeakable circumstances.”
Three psychiatric experts said they had noted “psychopathic” tendencies in the defendant and did not think she suffered from any mental health condition that could be cured.
Throughout the investigation, Benkired gave different motivations for the crime.
At one point, she told detectives she had been angry at the girl’s mother, who was the guardian of her sister’s apartment building and allegedly refused to give her an entry pass.
In the weeks before the murder, she had also searched about witchcraft and “human sacrifice to become rich”.
‘Sacrificial lamb’
During the trial, courts also heard that Lola, who was described as a “sacrificial lamb”, could have been the collateral victim of emotional revenge after Benkired exchanged heated texts with her former partner, who she claimed was abusive, on the day of the murder.
Before the verdict was announced, Benkired told the court: “I ask for forgiveness and what I did is horrible. That’s all I have to say.”
Following the verdict, Delphine Daviet, Lola’s mother, burst into tears. The accused showed little emotion.
Ms Daviet told the French press: “We believe in justice and we got it.”
Thibault Daviet, Lola’s brother, said: “We have restored the memory of my sister and her daughter, we have restored the truth. And above all, thank you to justice.”
