Europe 1 with AFP 14:00 pm, September 18, 2023

The court of Macon began Monday the trial of a teenager, accused of killing with several stab wounds his girlfriend, Emma, in June 2022, when they were both 14 years old. The girl's body was discovered on the public road and had numerous wounds and a knife still planted in her neck.

The juvenile court of Macon began Monday the trial of a teenager, accused of killing with several stab wounds his girlfriend, Emma, in 2022, when they were 14 years old. The hearing, which runs until Wednesday, opened behind closed doors shortly after 09 a.m., the parties' lawyers said. It will be a question of "understanding the incomprehensible, the inconceivable," Patrick Uzan, lawyer for Emma's parents, told AFP.

"Will to kill"

On June 9, 2022 in the early morning in Clessé, Saône-et-Loire, a typical wine village in South Burgundy, the girl's body was discovered on the public road near her former primary school. The body of the teenager, a 4th grade student, had numerous wounds and a knife still planted in the neck.

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The very next day, Emma's boyfriend was arrested at the college in Lugny, a nearby village where the two teenagers were educated. The teenager had quickly confessed that, during a night appointment, he had hit him "three times in the neck" with a knife hidden until then "in his sleeve", had then explained the prosecutor of Macon, Eric Jallet.

Emma had "tried to flee, but the suspect (had) tried to strangle her" before stabbing again, he added. Without a criminal record, the suspect had "a desire to kill," according to the hearings. The psychiatric examination had concluded that there had been "a significant impairment of discernment" but without abolition, which makes his trial possible.

Up to 20 years in prison for murder

As a minor, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years' imprisonment for murder. "The court will have to look into the issue of discernment," Amélie Gemma, the young defendant's lawyer, told AFP. The care he may have received could also be debated.

As soon as the teenager was arrested, the question arose as to whether his mental disorders were known and whether everything had been done to prevent his act. According to Mr. Uzan, "little Emma had a romance, her first emotion, and, despite her very young age, she understood that he was not well and she wanted to help him".

In 2022, the number of femicides stood at 118, four fewer than in 2021, according to the latest report from the Ministry of the Interior, published in September.