A 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, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV.
Dahbia Benkired, a 27-year-old Algerian woman, must spend at least 30 years in prison for her crimes against Lola Daviet, BFMTV reported. She is the first woman in France to receive this sentence, the harshest according to the French penal code, BFMTV added.
In October 2022, Daviet’s body was found mutilated and stuffed in a plastic box in a communal area outside the building where he lived, a statement from the Paris police prosecutor said at the time.
The victim’s body was discovered just hours after she was first reported missing, according to the statement.
CCTV showed the schoolgirl entering her apartment building alongside Benkired at 3.15pm on the day she was murdered. Less than two hours later, the killer was seen leaving the building alone, carrying heavy luggage, according to the statement.
Daviet died of cardiorespiratory failure with signs of asphyxiation and cervical compression, according to the police prosecutor’s statement.
He had multiple other injuries, “particularly to his face, back and large cuts to his neck, which did not play a role in his death based on the coroner’s findings regarding the cause of his death,” the police statement said.
Benkired told police he had taken Daviet to his sister’s apartment, which was in the same building where the victim lived, according to the statement.
There, according to the statement, 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 girl’s body in the plastic box.
In court Friday, Benkired said his crimes were “horrible” and asked for forgiveness before deliberations took place, BFMTV reported.
In a statement after the killer was sentenced, Lola Daviet’s brother thanked the French justice system for Benkired’s sentencing and said his family was “happy with the response we received,” BFMTV reported. The victim’s mother added that this was the case “even if it doesn’t give us our Lola back,” the outlet added.
Clotilde Lepetit, the Daviet family’s lawyer, celebrated a “fair decision, based on reason, humanity, truth and memory,” according to BFMTV.
“We restored the memory of this young woman. We restored a shattered truth,” he said, according to the outlet.
Alexandre Valois, Benkired’s lawyer, said Friday’s verdict was not a surprise. The killer has not yet decided whether or not he will appeal his sentence, he told reporters, according to BFMTV.
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