Maître Laurent Boguet, lawyer for the father of little Maëlys, reacted at the start of this second week of trial which has already seen Nordahl Lelandais admit his pedophile inclinations.

It was a special day of trial since the parents of Maëlys came to testify at the bar. “Joachim De Araujo (father of Maëlys), came to express the ocean of ashes that his existence has become since that tragic night of August 27, 2017”, explains to CNEWS his lawyer Maître Laurent Boguet, before adding, “obviously his emotion overwhelmed the courtroom and we were faced with a wall of coldness” from Nordahl Lelandais.

The father of the young victim wanted Nordahl Lelandais to explain “about what had been the last minutes of his daughter’s existence”. However, Maître Boguet remarks that the person concerned “showed himself to be completely incapable of getting out of his denial, a psychic and utilitarian denial because he has no interest in recognizing the worst before this Court of Assizes”.

The accused admits to having pedophile inclinations

During this day, Nordahl Lelandais admitted to having pedophile inclinations. Maëlys’ father’s lawyer believes that these inclinations “had been established in procedure” and that the accused ended up recognizing them “again in a moment of emotion.”

“The two recordings that Nordahl Lelandais had made on the occasion of the attacks he had committed on two little girls aged 4 and 6 who happened to be his little cousins ​​were viewed”, recalls Maître Boguet, before adding that “a little cornered by the reality of events, he ended up recognizing” his pedophile inclinations.

For the lawyer, these confessions will have no impact on the conviction of the accused. “I believe that we are part of a process of truth. I am not certain that the sanction is really at stake in this case because the facts of which he is accused reach such a level of seriousness that I think that the Court of Assizes, convinced of his guilt, will actually impose a sanction to the extent appalling acts he may have committed.”

An additional ordeal for the family of Maëlys

The trial, which should last three weeks, is for the family of little Maëlys a painful moment, as confirmed by the lawyer for the father of the young child. “They get emotional torpedoes every day and they obviously suffer from it. Words are barely enough to translate what they can feel, they are in great pain because above all, this trial is an event which does not omit any detail and which revives the suffering that was the theirs since August 2017.”

Already sentenced in May 2021 to 20 years in prison for the murder of Corporal Arthur Noyer, Nordahl Lelandais risks life imprisonment this time. He is on trial for the kidnapping and murder of young Maëlys, then 8 years old.