2023-10-21 05:01:52
The man arrested Wednesday in Sedan (Ardennes) as part of the investigation into the rape and murder of little Loana, 10 years old, was indicted for murder and rape of a 15-year-old minor and then placed in detention provisionally by an investigating judge, the Reims public prosecutor announced this Friday evening. He faces life imprisonment with a maximum security sentence of 30 years.
The suspect, Jean-Baptiste M., born in 1966, was taken into police custody on Wednesday evening after the discovery, in the cellar of the building where he lives, of the body of the little girl who had been missing since the day before. “The accused’s custody was extended, and the Charleville-Mézières public prosecutor’s office relinquished responsibility in favor of the Reims public prosecutor’s office, the criminal center,” indicated the public prosecutor of Charleville-Mézières, Magali Josse, in a press release.
He confessed to the rape
According to the public prosecutor of Reims, François Schneider, the child was “hit numerous times in the face” and these blows led to death. The child’s body was discovered wrapped in sheets in the cellar of this building in the city center, made up of an abandoned bar (the Bar sedanais) and an apartment upstairs, of which the suspect is the sole inhabitant. “There was blood in the bar, there was obviously blood in the cellar, a lot of blood”, as well as in the apartment “on the bed sheets”, detailed the prosecutor.
The accused did not admit to the murder. He spoke of “an accident”, saying that the little girl had “fallen down the stairs”. Not knowing what to do with the body, he then wrapped it in a sheet in the cellar. Jean-Baptiste M., however, admitted to having raped her.
According to Magali Josse, the suspect was known for traffic offenses and was sentenced in 2017 to a one-month suspended prison sentence for gang theft. This “alcoholic” man, according to the prosecutor, is divorced and the father of six children. The girl knew him, and it appears she had been to his house before, he said, adding that the father also knew who he was.
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