Lucas, the 13-year-old teenager who committed suicide on Saturday in Golbey (Vosges) and whose parents say he was harassed because of his homosexuality, had expressed "his desire to end his life" in his " diary, ”said the public prosecutor of Epinal on Friday.

Lucas had written in his diary "a word explaining his desire to end his life", specified during a press conference Frédéric Nahon.


Lucas, 13, who suffered school bullying and homophobia committed suicide.

Homophobia kills.



Homophobia kills and deep down you don't really care because you're not doing anything concrete to change things


https://t.co/EoyqvcYlod

— Fabien Randanne (@fabrandanne) January 12, 2023

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His relatives revealed in their hearings the existence of homophobic mockery and insults of which the teenager had said he was the victim of other students at his college in Golbey, he further underlined.

The preliminary investigation opened on Wednesday will endeavor "to verify the direct causal link between these facts and the suicide of the young teenager", indicated the prosecutor, inviting however to "caution on this last point".

It should also make it possible to "confirm the reality of the acts of harassment, their duration, the exact content of the remarks denounced, and to verify the various measures which have been taken", he continued.

“The cyber-harassment trail will also be checked,” he added.

Suicide by hanging

Regarding the causes of death, "the findings and the autopsy carried out by the forensic institute of Nancy made it possible to establish the thesis of suicide by hanging", also indicated the magistrate.

The teenager's mother will be heard by the prosecutor on Monday, accompanied by her lawyer.

According to the family lawyer, Me Catherine Faivre, the sexual orientation of the teenager was known to all and assumed, “as a 13-year-old boy can assume”.

Lucas was educated at Louis-Armand College in Golbey, said the prosecutor, according to whom "there has been no recent investigation for acts of harassment in this college".

Lucas' parents have not yet filed a complaint at this stage, and the family wants the funeral "to take place in the strictest privacy, without the presence of the press", let Me Faivre know.

A white march will be organized "in the coming weeks", she added.

The "mockery" immediately "taken seriously"

A psychological cell was set up in the establishment on Monday, the rectorate had indicated on Thursday, recalling that the college was "engaged in the pHARe device to fight against harassment".

According to the rectorate, the "mockery" reported by Lucas and his mother at the start of the school year had been "immediately taken seriously by the college teams".

In October 2021, Dinah Gonthier, 14, committed suicide at her home in Kingersheim in the Haut-Rhin, because according to her family, she was the victim of school harassment.

After a first complaint dismissed by the Mulhouse prosecution, the family of the teenager filed a complaint with civil action last November.

Miscellaneous facts

Vosges: Victim of harassment, a 13-year-old teenager commits suicide

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