The four 13-year-olds will be tried “for school harassment leading to the suicide” of Lucas, a teenager of the same age who ended his life in early January in Golbey, eastern France.
The death of Lucas at the beginning of the month had caused great emotion in France and triggered many reactions on social networks. His relatives believe that he committed suicide after being harassed because of his homosexuality. After the opening of a preliminary investigation, four teenagers – two boys and two girls aged 13 – educated in the same college as him were taken into custody.
During their hearings, they admitted ” having repeatedly made fun of their comrade “, indicated the prosecutor of Épinal, Frédéric Nahon, in a press release. ” The facts took place from September 2022 to the beginning of January 2023 “, he specified.
The investigation having established that the harassment could have participated in the passage to the suicidal act of the young Lucas, the four teenagers will therefore have to appear before the children’s court of Épinal to answer there for school harassment having led to the suicide. However, they will be subject to an evaluation by the judicial protection of youth before their judgment.
The prosecutor also announced the opening of an “incidental investigation against X for non-denunciation of ill-treatment of minors”. 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. According to the rectorate, the teasing » reported by Lucas and his mother at the start of the school year had been « immediately taken seriously by the college teams “.
The death of the teenager had triggered many reactions, from associations for the defense of the rights of LGBT + people as well as politicians.
(With AFP)