The student who stabbed his teacher to death at Saint-Thomas d’Aquin high school in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, admitted the facts and was remanded in custody. He risks up to life if the qualification of assassination is retained.
Two days after the terrible tragedy at Saint-Thomas d’Aquin high school in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, the student who stabbed Agnès Lassalle to death admitted the facts and was brought before the investigating judge. This Friday, February 24, the judge of freedoms and detention placed the student in pre-trial detention, which means that during the entire investigation phase and before the final verdict, the teenager will be placed behind bars. The student being 16 years old and suspected of a crime, he could be imprisoned for a period of one year extendable up to a maximum of two years during the duration of the instruction.
Towards perpetuity?
This measure of imprisonment for a minor aged 16 to 18 is, in principle, rare. The Penal Code, in its article L.334-2, provides that the measure must be “indispensable” but also meet the criteria set out in article 144 of the same code such as “protect the person under investigation” but also “put an end to to the offense or prevent its recurrence”. The student who stabbed his teacher will however be placed in a special section of the prison, either in a remand center or in a specialized penal establishment for minors.
In principle, not being adults, people under 18 are not punished as severely by the courts. However, beyond the age of 16, the “minority excuse” no longer applies. Article 122-8 of the Penal Code provides that “minors capable of discernment are criminally responsible for the crimes, misdemeanors or contraventions of which they have been found guilty”. Everything also depends on the qualification used in this case, murder or assassination. This last crime being punished more severely because it is premeditated. The other question that arises is that of his criminal responsibility, a question that the experts will have to answer during the trial. If the qualification of assassination is retained in the judgment, then life could be retained. If the crime is reclassified as murder, then the teenager could risk up to 15 years in prison.
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This Wednesday, February 22, 2023, a teacher from Saint-Thomas d’Aquin high school in Saint-Jean-de-Luz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) was killed by a student, who violently attacked her with a knife, around 10 a.m., in the middle of a Spanish lesson. France Blue Basque Country comes from a testimony that the teenager would have got up in the middle of the lesson, hiding his bladed weapon in a sheet. After blocking the door of the room, he allegedly threw himself on the teacher to stab her, who was hit in the sternum. When the emergency services arrived on the scene, the victim, aged around fifty, was in cardiopulmonary arrest. She died a few minutes later.
The assailant is a 16-year-old boy. The public prosecutor of Bayonne, quoted by The Parisian, indicated that the young man is educated in second class and was a pupil of the teacher killed. He was quickly arrested by the police. At this stage, the reasons that led him to commit this barbaric act are not yet known. The young man is unknown to the precise police services BFM-TV. The news channel claims that “the teenager suffers from psychiatric disorders, and would have said ‘to be possessed’, after his acting out.” The world confirms that the investigation “is oriented towards taking into account possible psychiatric disorders of the perpetrator.” According to information from Opinionthe high school student would have made “weird remarks, a little incoherent”, but “in connection” with his act.
After attacking the teacher, the high school student in question would have gone to a neighboring class and would have given his weapon to a teacher present with whom he would have exchanged a few words. Police sources quoted by various media said that the young man claimed to have “heard voices” telling him that his teacher “embodied evil” and pushed him to attack him. The high school student would have renewed his declarations during his police custody according to other sources close to the file with BFM TV.
The Minister of National Education, Pap Ndiaye, confirmed Thursday, February 23, before the press conference of the public prosecutor: “It is rather towards disorders of a psychiatric nature that we are moving but I do not want not conclude until the investigation has clarified all this”. In front of the investigators, the high school student renewed his statements on “voices” he would have heard before stabbing his teacher. These voices would have told him that the teacher “embodied evil” according to a police source with BFM TV. The trail of psychiatric disorders therefore seems to be confirmed.
During his speech, the public prosecutor of Bayonne, Jérôme Bourrier, also indicated that the second-year student “has put forward a little voice that speaks to him (…), which encourages him to do evil and who would have suggested to him the day before to commit an assassination”. The prosecutor added that the student “appeared accessible to criminal responsibility” because “no mental illness of the schizophrenia type, manic state, melancholy or mental retardation, nor acute psychiatric decompensation” were detected.
Agnès Lassalle was stabbed by one of her students on Wednesday February 22, 2023. A 52-year-old teacher who had been teaching Spanish at the private high school in Saint-Jean-de-Luz for 26 years. Her companion would like the image of her to remain as a person who “always tried to help others, to do things well”. For her companion, Agnès Lassalle accomplished “her mission to the end”.
The public prosecutor described the teacher as a person “extremely invested in her school and unanimously appreciated by her students, her colleagues, her family”. Since then, many testimonies from students have been pouring in to honor the memory of Agnès Lassalle. A former student from his Spanish class gave his testimony to the Parisian. “I had this teacher for two years, she was demanding yes, but she knew where she wanted to take her students, humanly she was very nice, she was a wonderful woman”.