Two young people suspected of beating a man in his forties to death after having lured him into a fake date to rob him were indicted on Thursday, the Grenoble prosecutor’s office announced.
Last November, the departmental security of Isère opened an investigation after a man was seriously injured in an attack on the campus of the University of Grenoble, located in the neighboring town of Saint-Martin-d’Hères. . The man died a few days later.
Investigators have made the connection with other very violent attacks that occurred in the same place, using pistols, tasers or brass knuckles. A total of seven victims have been identified, according to the prosecutor’s statement.
The victim responded to an ad
The investigation then established that the victims had responded to an advertisement on the dating site coco.fr and had gone to a fixed appointment. Four suspects aged 17 to 21 were then identified and arrested and placed in police custody on April 3.
At the time of their indictment on Thursday, they claimed that their goal was “to attack pedophiles whom they contacted on the site by posing as underage girls”, further reported the prosecution.
In accordance with the requisitions of the prosecution, the two adults involved in the death of one of the victims were placed in pre-trial detention and the two minors not involved in this fatal attack were placed under judicial supervision.
In addition, the investigation brought to light the fact that the suspects had set up “sophisticated scams by phishing victims through fraudulent SMS (CRIT AIR, E-SIM, etc.) allowing them to buy bulk cryptocurrencies, the total amount of which remains to be determined”.