Maëlys case: “May the images of our dead children haunt you for eternity”

At a time when the conviction of the jurors may already have been made, the floor was given, Friday afternoon, to the lawyers for the parents of Maëlys for their pleadings. Last arguments, last reasonings, last words to gain their unanimity. None used these lyrical flights which give pleasure. They stuck to the implacable facts of the case. Worthy as were, they insisted on recalling, these two and a half weeks of debates, during which finally, the grief prevailed over the horror of the case. Twenty-four thousand pages of innocently cold lies.

“To judge this file is to face, without fear and without hatred, the atrocity of the facts” began Me Martin Vatinel, one of the two lawyers of Joachim de Araujo, the father of the child. He brought his daughter back to life, her joyful arrival at the wedding, at the end of August 2017, after a happy holiday in Portugal, her enthusiasm to change schools, notebooks and pens stored in her schoolbag. “His parents will never accompany him to the altar of his marriage”. He evoked the shipwreck of the father “lost at sea in a horizon without shore, as he said himself at the helm (…) a horizon, he continued, looking at Lelandais, whom you fed for six months by your lies. This father who, during the six months when he hoped that Maëlys would be found alive, lost 26 kilos, exactly the weight of his daughter. Mr. Vatinel approached the motive for the kidnapping, the only mystery in this case. Is it sexual? “My conviction is made” And to evoke almost physically the ordeal of the little girl when “your hatred, Mr Lelandais, your incredible violence fell down. Of course she screamed, she begged. You felt his bones crack, his face crack. You have seen this blood flow”.

Laurent Boguet, lawyer at the bar of Toulouse where he also represents the son of Delphine Jubilar, addressed Lelandais to point out his coldness, his denials. “Being a lawyer makes us those deep-sea miners who go looking in the mud, in the mud, for small bits of humanity. I blame you, Nordahl Lelandais, because you made me doubt my abilities. You have chosen to show us your cul-de-basse-fosse. Your silences are sometimes answers, your answers often lies. He recalled what the young Nordhal’s teacher said, who seemed to have understood the character: “Either we make someone good out of him, or it will be very complicated.” His cleavage, mentioned by shrinks? “A passport to do anything”. Idleness, alcohol, drugs “it’s a choice and to choose is to give up”. Lelandais, “this plunderer of lives”, “remained stuck at the age of fifteen: when his friends founded homes, built houses, he installed s4 rims on his Audi (…) spent his life with his dogs, not any, dogs used by elite units, real weapons of war on which Nordahl Lelandais is able to cry. On them only, never on his victims”. His sexuality? “Showing your pectorals on sites, seducing on the fly, the act takes place on car hoods, in the depths of forests”. Lelandais is “the wolf man”. Me Boguet says he is convinced, “but that’s only my opinion”, he warns, that Lelandais spotted Maëlys at the wedding reception. Didn’t he upload photos of similar physiques to his phone? Planted in front of the accused, Me Boguet suddenly made Maëlys speak, as if she had just suddenly arrived at the hearing: “Hey, Uncle Nono, my friend, you didn’t tell them everything, you told them lied a lot, when you hovered around me playing ball. You lied to them when you explained that I told you Mom was okay with me going to see your dogs. Yes, Nordahl Lelandais, Maëlys speaks to you through my voice, you the boxing deaf”. Insisting: “Who would dream of embarking at three o’clock in the morning an eight-year-old child without the consent of his parents, except in the tortured universe of the accused? “. Get him to admit that? “He would pass the lie detector.” He concludes with the pity he inspires in Maëlys’ dad, whose existence he “shattered”. “Take the pity of the father of your victim to your dungeon. It’s a candle. I hope that one day you will perceive its faint brilliance”.

To read : Psychologists try to unravel the Nordahl Lelandais mystery

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Who seriously could say that the sexual motive is inconsistent?

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Me Fabien Rajon wanted to speak first to Colleen, 16, to salute her courage, when she testified at the bar, planted in front of Lelandais, arms crossed, waiting for the eyes of the answers that never came. “You will have to find the strength to get up, to have confidence in the human race. If you want to see what a mediocre life is, if you want to see where lies lead, look at this man”. He recalled the criminal dangerousness of Lelandais, pointed out by shrinks. “To the last possible degree”, will say one of them. Has he changed since his detention? Me Rajon then lists the pornographic sites he continues to watch from his cell. Remember his perversity. If Anouchka (his last companion) had replied to the text message he sent her to have sex on the night of the wedding, “nothing would have happened” said Lelandais. And when he turned, one day of hearing, to the parents of Maëlys, whom he knows invaded by guilt, what words does he find? “I want to tell you that you have nothing to do with it”. Me Rajon: “Thank you, Nordahl Lelandais, for your lucidity! He then read a letter delivered to him by Didier and Cécile Noyer, the parents of Corporal Arthur Noyer. “What are you playing at the Grenoble Court of Assizes? (…) No, it’s not an altercation with our son, it’s murder, you’re a murderer. (…) You’re never there for nothing, it’s always the fault of others. Stop using Arthur by evoking the murder of Maëlys. You are an evildoer, a liar, a manipulator and a coward. Are the 10m2 of your cell less livable than the 2m2 of Arthur’s tomb? May the images of our dead children haunt you for eternity”.

The cellphone. “He’s sexual, that’s for sure.” No evidence, of course. But: all those photos of very young teenage girls loaded onto her cell phone and then destroyed the day after the wedding, before smashing her phone and throwing it into a lake. But: her own mother is convinced of this, witness a phone tap after the fact, where she even says that the little one had to struggle. The vast majority of his friends also believe in it. But: what do we find in Lelandais’ room during the first search? Children’s clothes size 3 years. “Who seriously could say that the sexual motive is incoherent? “Then, approaching the jurors, he concluded, measuring his words well:” When do you want Nordahl Lelandais to prowl again in front of the nightclubs of Chambéry or in front of a kindergarten, or in front of a college? “. The six jurors took the hint.

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