2023-12-26 18:18:47
French police arrested on Tuesday a 33-year-old man with psychiatric disorders and suspected of having killed his wife and four children, found dead on Christmas Day in an apartment near Paris.
Around 9:00 p.m. on Monday (8:00 p.m. GMT), law enforcement officers intervened in the home of this family, on the ground floor of an apartment building, alerted by relatives of the victims, the prosecutor of Meaux (40 km) reported on Tuesday. east of Paris) Jean Baptiste Bladier, before the press.
Inside, at the “crime scene, of great violence,” five bodies were found: that of the 35-year-old mother and that of the four small children, a 10-year-old girl, a 7-year-old girl, a 4 years old and a 9-month-old baby, Bladier explained.
“The mother and the two girls had been victims of a large number of stab wounds” that were impossible to count, he said. No visible signs of injuries were found in the children, for whom the hypothesis of asphyxiation or drowning is planned. Autopsies will be carried out on Wednesday in Paris.
According to a police source, confirmed by the prosecutor, important work analyzing video surveillance images made it possible to track the suspect.
Detained in his father’s house in Sevran (suburb of Paris), the accused, a French national, indicated “he knew why he was detained” and mentioned “his personal discomfort and depression,” according to the prosecutor.
The suspect has been under follow-up for depressive and psychotic disorders since 2017. Prescriptions for tranquilizers were found at his home.
The premises of the investigation revealed previous acts of violence in this couple formed 14 years ago and married in October 2023.
The man, however, has no “criminal record,” the prosecutor noted.
“The mother supported the family”
In November 2019, the suspect stabbed his wife in the shoulder blade when she was a month and a half away from giving birth. But the victim, born in Haiti, refused to file a complaint and refused help from an association for victims of violence.
The authorities opened an investigation and the spouse was arrested before being hospitalized in psychiatry. The man claimed not to have wanted to harm his wife, whom he loved, according to the prosecutor. Bladier indicated that the procedure was shelved due to his mental state.
An expert report confirmed that the father of the family no longer had the capacity for discernment.
The mother was “a very good person, very happy. She lived for her family. The man did not work, she was the one who supported the family,” Nadine Coulibaly told the press, presenting herself as the friend and neighbor who alerted the forces. of the order.
On average, a feminicide occurs every three days in France: 118 women were murdered last year by their spouse or ex-spouse.
Recent news is marked by two triple infanticides perpetrated by parents in the suburbs of Paris.
In total, 244,300 victims of gender violence, the vast majority of them women, were registered by security forces, a figure up 15% compared to 2021.
Women’s rights associations interpret this increase as a sign that their voices are being taken into account more.
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