Gwladys Laffitte, edited by Mélanie Faure
modified to
09:53, February 01, 2022
It is one of the most publicized trials of the year. Monday, January 31, the trial of Nordahl Lelandais opened at the Grenoble Assize Court. This first week is devoted to the Nordahl Lelandais personality test. But the hearing of the mother and his mother and his sister, yesterday, did not really allow the mystery of the Lelandais to be unraveled.
Finding the breaking point in the life of Nordahl Lelandais is difficult. And it wasn’t the two women closest to him who helped the court put their finger on it. A friendly, helpful boy, who is looking for himself professionally. What degrees does he have? His mother, Christine, does not know. The president was surprised. “Who do you think he is?” she asked softly. But nothing intimate is said. Simply the words of a mother who loves her son, whom she has always found more gifted than the others in everything.
A love failure
However, the man has a chaotic school career. He goes through periods of interim and sick leave. “The impression of a disintegration over time”, tried to decipher a lawyer for civil parties. “I may have dropped something,” admitted Christine, wrapped in her pink coat. “I don’t see him as a monster. He has become fully aware of his actions”, according to his sister, whose voice we barely heard. Finally, he points to a tipping point. A love failure. Then alcohol and drugs. “I was like a wanderer in 2017,” he explained. A truth that did not convince the benches of the civil parties dominated by the brouhaha.
The Grenoble Assize Court continues on Tuesday to decipher the personality of Nordahl Lelandais, tried for the murder in 2017 of the young Maëlys, by retracing his chaotic journey after a youth yet “without major difficulty”. Friends and former companions, as well as his brother, are called to testify to continue the examination of the personality of the accused during this trial placed at the heart of media attention.
Maëlys, eight years old, disappeared on the night of August 26 to 27, 2017 during a wedding party in the village hall of Pont-de-Beauvoisin, in Isère. Quickly suspected, Nordahl Lelandais was confused in February 2018 by the discovery of a bloodstain in the trunk of his car. He then admitted to having killed her “unintentionally”, then led the investigators to the remains of the victim.