Lola Daviet was raped and tortured to death (Image: Delphine Daviet/Facebook)
A female illegal immigrant in France was today sentenced to life in prison for raping, torturing and then murdering a schoolgirl.
Dahbia Benkired, a 27-year-old Algerian, was told on Friday that she would never be released from her cell for ending Lola Daviet’s life. The 12-year-old’s contaminated corpse was found in the lobby of the building where she lived in the French capital in 2022.
Benkired had confessed to the murder, but, in accordance with French law, was tried at the Paris assizes.
Today she told the court: ‘I ask for forgiveness. What I did was terrible. That’s all I have to say’.
This was just before a jury finally convicted her of all three charges of ‘murder, rape and torture’ after almost three hours of deliberation.
The horrific story has become a hugely political story because of the way it highlights weak immigration policies.
Protesters gathered outside the courthouse today and called for the reinstatement of the death penalty in the fight against Benkired.
She shouldn’t even have been in France after overstaying her student visa, but she was still free to hunt Lola “for pleasure and the satisfaction of sexual urges,” the attorney general said.
The prosecutor – who remains unnamed under French legal convention – said Benkired should spend the rest of her days behind bars without any chance of parole.
Addressing the jury, the Attorney General said: ‘the three crimes are characterized by particular cruelty, all of which are punishable by life imprisonment.
“These are crimes that have plunged a family into unspeakable suffering.
‘Dahbia Benkired is extremely dangerous and the chance of recidivism is maximum.’
The attorney general called for a life sentence aimed at “protecting society from a woman of whose extreme danger I firmly believe.”
A so-called ‘irreducible life sentence’ – which Benkired was given – is the harshest possible punishment under the French Criminal Code, and is often criticized by human rights organizations.
Lola’s mother, Delphine Daviet, 47, was in tears as she faced Benkired in court on Wednesday.
“Before this tragedy we had a very simple family life, with a lot of attention for each other,” Mrs Daviet said.
Everything changed on October 14, 2022, when Lola was kidnapped from the apartment building where she lived with her parents and brother.
Recalling their last moments together, Mrs Daviet said: ‘I kissed her, I said, ‘Goodbye.’ Then she came across this thing: this devilish monster.
‘I feel guilty, I couldn’t save my Lola. My husband and my son often blame themselves too.’
Benkired sexually assaulted Lola, slit her throat with scissors and a box cutter, and then duct taped her face, leading to her death because she could not breathe.
“Who could have imagined what would happen if Lola encountered this thing, this monster?” said Mrs Daviet. ‘Why us, why Lola? My mother’s heart is broken forever.’
Mrs Daviet’s husband, 49-year-old Johan Daviet, died in February last year due to heavy drinking linked to the family tragedy.
The couple had worked as caretakers in the building from which Lola had been kidnapped by the homeless man Benkired.
Mrs Daviet said: “I tell myself that I am lucky to have my son, Thibault, by my side, otherwise I might not be here anymore.
“I remind you that I lost my Lola, my husband, my job, my house. My whole life has collapsed. Sometimes I wonder how I’m still standing.’
Benkired, who was arrested as a son after Lola’s corpse was found in a trunk, looked impassively at such wills against her.
She was examined by psychiatrists and could stand trial.
Éric Pauget, of France’s Republican party, said in parliament that Lola had been killed as a result of France’s “weak immigration policy.”
Benkired has been in pre-trial detention for three years in the high-security prison of Fresnes, south of Paris.
The historic verdict means Dahbia Benkired becomes the first woman in French criminal history to be sentenced to life without parole.
The men currently serving the same rate include Salah Abdeslam, the Belgian terrorist who was part of the 10-member ISIS gang that murdered 130 people in one night in Paris in November 2015.
Abdeslam, 36, is in solitary confinement and monitored by cameras 24 hours a day, and Benkired is expected to be treated similarly in her maximum security prison.
Dahbia was emotionless as the verdict was read, while Delphine Daviet and Thibault Daviet – Lola’s mother and brother – hugged each other and burst into tears.
Benkired was led downstairs to begin her full sentence immediately after her six-day trial.
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