The Advocate General on Thursday requested life imprisonment with a security period of 22 years against Nordahl Lelandais, the former military dog handler tried by the Assizes of Isère for having kidnapped and killed Maëlys, 8 years, in August 2017. The highly publicized trial will have lasted three weeks and the verdict will in all likelihood be known this Friday.
Nordahl Lelandais is also on trial for sexual assault on two little cousins aged 4 and 6. He was already sentenced in May 2021 to twenty years in prison.
“Great Predator”
“I will ask you to declare Nordahl Lelandais a major criminal, a major predator”declared the Advocate General Jacques Dallest in his indictment, qualifying the accused tried since January 31 before the Assizes of Isère of “absolute social danger”. For the magistrate, the motive of the former 38-year-old dog handler is “obviously” sexual. However, he recalled that Nordahl Lelandais was not tried for rape in this case for lack of“material element”the girl’s body having been found in a too degraded state, six months after her disappearance.
“He must take the maximum”reacted the big sister of little Maëlys, after the requisitions. “It relieved me”added the young woman to BFM TV. “This is what I expected, then we will see the verdict tomorrow”added Jennifer de Araujo, the mother of the girl, kidnapped in August 2017 during a wedding in Isère.
The eight-year-old girl disappeared on the night of August 26 to 27, 2017, at a wedding party in Pont-de-Beauvoisin (Isère). It took six months for Nordahl Lelandais, prompted to confess by the discovery of a bloodstain in the trunk of his car, to finally confess where he had hidden the body. Delivering fluctuating versions throughout the investigation and then his trial, the former military dog handler ended up admitting to having “voluntarily killed Maëlys“.
On the other hand, he maintains that the little girl got into his vehicle of her own free will to “to see (his) dogs” and denies any sexual assault on her. The man who turns 39 on Friday is also being prosecuted for the sexual assault of two little cousins, 4 and 6 years old, which he had filmed with his mobile phone, during the same summer of 2017.
Update : at 12:13 p.m., with statements from Maëlys’ sister and mother.