The former dog master, aged 38, is judged for the removal, sequestration and murder of Maëlys de Araujo, 8 years old.
Le Monde with AFP
On the first day of his trial for murder Monday, January 31 in Grenoble, Nordahl Lelandais acknowledged having “given death” to the young Maës, before apologizing to his family. “I want to apologize, I knew death in Maëlys, I did not want to give him death, I will explain to the facts during the hearing,” he said since The box repressing sobs, before the hearing is suspended.
The trial of the former military Nordahl Lelandais for the murder of the small Maës de Araujo started in the morning in the absence of several witnesses. The accused, former 38-year-old dog master, is judged for the murder preceded by the removal and sequestration of Maëlys de Araujo, 8, in August 2017.
Maës’s parents arrived at the Grenoble courthouse with a great painted portrait of the girl. “The goal is that Maëlys has all its place in this courtroom”, explained the mother’s mother’s lawyer, M e Fabien Rajon, adding that the family was ” Ready to face these three weeks of foundation “.
The relatives of the child are “more and more determined, impatient, of course lucid about the ability of Nordahl Leland to say the whole truth, particularly on the abuse of a sexual nature inflicted on the small Maëlys,” -To he added, while rape prosecutions have been dismissed during the investigation for lack of element.
Several absent indicators
At the opening of the hearing several witnesses lacked the appeal, including the accused’s brother, Sven Lelandais, who requested by mail not to attend the hearing, saying that he did not had “nothing to do” with this affair and arguing that he had barely “hardly” finding work like seasonal in the mountains.
The lawyer of the accused, M e Alain Jakubowicz, supported his request, describing it as “a sick man, suffering from an orphan disease”. He was not followed by the president, who ordered it to be “sought”. She also ordered the presence of an ex-co-codettee of the accused, whose testimony had been judged unreliable in the past, and from one of his ex-girlfriends, yet carriers of a medical certificate.
The Chair then read the thick report summarizing the case and the day had to continue with the hearing of witnesses including a personality investigator and the accused’s mother. Nordahl Lelandais, itself, should not be heard about the facts before Wednesday afternoon.
Also judged for sexual aggression
From the beginning, four and a half years ago, this tragic makes various had fascinated the general public, aroused compassion for the parents of the girl and indignation with regard to the suspect, perceived as a manipulator and a suspected time. to be a serial killer. Dozens of people had come out very early Monday morning in front of the courthouse in the hope of attending trial. Many of them could not access the room.
Already sentenced to Chambéry, in May 2021, at twenty years of inclusion for the murder of the young soldier Arthur Noyer, Nordahl Lelandais had not appealed. It will now be explained on the circumstances that led him to kill – “involuntarily” according to him – Maëlys de Araujo at a marriage evening in Pont-de-Beavoisin (Isère) in the night of 26 to 27 August 2017.
We do not know especially in what conditions the little girl is mounted in his car. The circumstances of the death of the child also remain surrounded by shadow areas. Quickly suspected despite his denials, the former soldier had finally been confused by the discovery of a blood spot in the trunk of his car. Six months after the facts, he had led the investigators to the remains of his victim, in the Massif de la Chartreuse.
It will also be judged for sexual assaults against two older small cousins at the age of 5 and 6 years, as well as for detention and registration of child pornographic images. The verdict is expected around February 18 – if the Pandemic of Covid-19 does not come to blur the cards. Nordahl Lelandais encourages criminal perpetuity imprisonment.