The Assize Court of Isère sentenced Nordahl Lelandais on Friday to the maximum sentence, life imprisonment, for the murder of little Maëlys in August 2017. This conviction, which is accompanied by a security sentence of 22 years, complies with the requisitions of the Advocate General, who had described the accused as “absolute social danger”. She was greeted by silence in the courtroom, at the end of the three-week trial organized at the Grenoble courthouse.
A “broken life”
Standing in his box, Nordahl Lelandais reacted calmly to the statement of the verdict, which coincidentally falls on his 39th birthday. He then quickly spoke with his lawyers and with his mother.
The family of the little girl who saw her “shattered life” after her disappearance on the night of August 26 to 27, 2017 during a wedding party, had no visible reactions. She also spoke with her lawyers.
The former soldier had been on trial since January 31 for the kidnapping and murder of 8-year-old Maëlys. Advocate General Jacques Dallest had requested the maximum sentence against him, describing him as “great criminal, great predator”. The former soldier was also tried for sexual assaults against two little cousins, 4 and 6 years old, during the same summer of 2017.
The defense lawyer had for his part pleaded for a 30-year sentence in order to allow him to “keep hope, however distant”. His client is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for the murder of a young soldier who crossed his path in April 2017.
A 7 hour deliberation
Just before the start of the deliberation, which lasted around 7 hours, Nordahl Lelandais had once again apologized to Maëlys’ family. “I know the families will never accept my apologies but I have to present them with the utmost sincerity,” he said. He also pledged to continue “the long work I have to do on myself (…) with great determination”.
Joachim De Araujo, Maëlys’ father, said he was convinced that these last statements were “a form of comedy”. “If it was sincere, it would have touched me but here I see that it is not at all sincere”, he declared to BFMTV.
Maëlys’ mother, her sister and their relatives arrived at the courthouse on Friday morning all wearing the same black polo shirt printed with the girl’s face. A large banner proclaiming “Truth and justice for you Maëlys. We will never let go” had been deployed on the forecourt.
“Hallucination”
Since the start of the trial, the accused has delivered fluctuating versions of the girl’s disappearance, varying in particular on the circumstances of the abduction of his victim, whom he had never met before the facts. He ended up admitting to having killed her “voluntarily” by hitting her violently in the face, a few minutes after taking her from the village hall of Pont-de-Beauvoisin (Isère) where the wedding was taking place.
He justified this sudden outbreak of violence by evoking a fit of panic, a “hallucination”, explaining that he saw on the girl’s face appear that of Corporal Arthur Noyer whom he had killed five months earlier. Faced with the chilling videos he had filmed with his phone where we see him touching the sex of his little cousins aged 4 and 6, he also admitted for the first time clearly to have felt “pedophile” inclinations.
On the other hand, he denies any sexual motive against Maëlys, affirming that she had climbed of her own free will into her car to see her dogs. This version never convinced the civil parties. “We did not get the truth from Nordahl Lelandais but we did not expect it from his mouth. We have an objective truth which is that of the file, which is overwhelming for (him)”, estimated the lawyer for Maëlys’ mother, Me Fabien Rajon.
The affair has aroused immense emotion from the start, in a media whirlwind. More than 250 journalists were accredited for the debates, hundreds of curious people flocked to the gates of the courthouse every day in the hope of attending the hearings.