The trial of Nordahl Lelandais, accused of the kidnapping and murder of little Maëlys, is due to begin on January 31 at the Isère Assize Court. The former dog handler faces life imprisonment.
[Mis à jour le 25 janvier 2022 à 15h12] It took six months and material evidence for Nordahl Lelandais to confess, in February 2018, to having killed Maëlys de Araujo. Since then, the victim’s family is still waiting for the trial, which is due to begin on January 31. More than three years after the tragedy, the accused is preparing to be tried before the Assize Court of Isère for the kidnapping and for his responsibility in the death of little Maëlys. At the end of this three-week trial, from January 31 to February 18, the accused faces life imprisonment. For the family, the upcoming hearings promise to be a “terrible ordeal” but they are waiting for “the full extent of Nordahl Lelandais’ dangerousness” to be taken into account by the courts, said Me Fabien Rajon, the lawyer for mother and sister of Maëlys.
The eight-year-old girl was kidnapped and then killed on the evening of August 27, 2017 while she was with her parents at a wedding in the town of Pont-de-Beauvoisin, in Isère. Nordahl Lelandais was also present at the event and it was during the party that he kidnapped the girl. The 38-year-old man has changed the story several times, but in his latest version, he claims that the girl got into his car voluntarily to see his dogs. After only a few minutes, according to her version of the facts, the child would have started crying and the accused would have hit her violently in the face to the point of causing death. The accused’s confession only came in February 2018 after investigators discovered a bloodstain from Maëlys in the trunk of his car.
What is the penalty incurred by Nordahl Lelandais?
Judged for the murder and kidnapping of little Maëlys, the former dog handler theoretically incurs life imprisonment. Although it is the heaviest sentence in France, it is always accompanied by a period of security which can range from 18 to 22 years, that is to say that after 22 years behind bars the convicted person may apply for a reduction in sentence. An exception provided for by the law of February 1, 1994 makes it possible to pronounce irreducible life imprisonment with a security period which can extend over 30 years but Nordahl Lelandais does not risk being condemned to such a sentence. Only four cases justify the incompressible life sentence, in particular the murder of a minor under the age of 15 if it is accompanied by “rape, torture or acts of barbarism”. However, sexual assault is not a charge against Nordahl Lelandais, for lack of evidence. A decision of the judges that the lawyer for the Maëlys family regrets: “The judges could perhaps have been more daring and considered other qualifications, I am thinking in particular of qualifications linked to sexual abuse of the little girl. Maëlys. It was not their choice.
The final indictment of the Grenoble public prosecutor’s office concerning the case of little Maëlys was delivered on March 19, 2021. The prosecutor’s services had then ruled out premeditation to retain only the charges of murder, kidnapping and kidnapping of a minor under 15 years against Nordahl Lelandais. The abandonment of the aggravating circumstance of premeditation makes the trial for murder impossible. Premeditated murder is punishable by life imprisonment when murder is punishable by only thirty years in prison, as specified in articles 221-1 and 221-3 of the Penal Code. However, according to Me Rajon, “in law and taking into account the qualifications which were retained by the investigating judges, Nordahl Lelandais incurs a sentence of life imprisonment with a security period of 18 to 22 years, maximum security period of 22 years old”. Adding murder as a charge would therefore have had no impact on the sentence incurred by the accused.
The question of “a possible sexual motive” raised during the trial
The victim’s family does not give credit to Nordahl Lelandais’ statements. “I don’t believe in the accidental death of my daughter as he says. Nor in a simple night walk to see his dogs. At 3 a.m., you don’t take a child for a walk, an animal visit. He knew very well what he was going to do. It was premeditated”, declared Joachim de Araujo, the father of Maëlys in an interview with the Parisian. The devastated man does not expect the accused to tell the truth about the night of the tragedy. However, many gray areas still surround the death of Maëlys and the trial aims to shed light on this affair, in particular on “the question of a possible sexual motive” reports Me Rajon. Despite the doubts of the family and investigators, the charge of sexual assault was not retained because the autopsy carried out belatedly did not make it possible to determine whether the girl had been sexually abused. Nordahl Lelandais waited several months to reveal the location of the girl’s body, buried on a site in the Chartreuse massif, and therefore delayed the examinations necessary to find out the circumstances of Maëlys’ death. The suspicions concerning the sexual assault of the girl are reinforced by other accusations which relate to the former soldier and for which Nordahl Lelandais will also be tried before the Assizes of Grenoble: facts qualified as sexual assaults against two of his little cousins, aged 4 and 6 at the time of the events, and the possession of child pornography images.
With such charges, the personality of Nordahl Lelandais and his deviances will be at the heart of the trial. The psychiatrists who have appraised the former dog handler have already reported proven pedophile inclinations and a total absence of guilt. Reports that will be put into perspective with the discoveries of the investigators. Me Boguet notably informed France 3 about the Maëlys affair “that a few hours before presenting himself as a surprise guest at this wedding, Nordahl Lelandais consulted child pornography sites”. While Me Carole Rémond, the lawyer for the family of the little cousins of the thirties, says that the man filmed himself attacking the two children and specifies that “it is one of the components of sexual predators of in a general way”. As a defense argument, the accused had explained to the investigators that he no longer knew how to differentiate adult women from children under the influence of alcohol and cocaine. Despite the absence of tangible evidence, Maëlys’ father, Joachim de Araujo, is firmly convinced that his daughter has been abused and describes the attacker as “someone perverse, a pedophile”. And to add: “He kidnapped her to abuse her. For me, Lelandais is a monster”
Nordahl Lelandais sentenced for the murder of Arthur Noyer
The investigations carried out on the former dog handler, suspect and now accused in the Maëlys case, made it possible to resolve another investigation and to find the culprit of the murder of Corporal Arthur Noyer on the night of April 11 to 12, 2017. 23 year old young man spent the evening with comrades of the 13th battalion of alpine hunters in the bars of Chambéry. The group then went to a nightclub in the Savoyard prefecture before Arthur Noyer left the establishment and disappeared. In this case Nordahl Lelandais admitted having hitchhiked the corporal at the exit of the nightclub, who allegedly assaulted him after accusing him of wanting to steal his cell phone. Again, the 30-year-old waited several months before confessing in March 2018 to having caused the death of the corporal, but accidentally, following a fight. During his first trial in the Arthur Noyer case, Nordahl Lelandais received a 20-year prison sentence which he is serving in the Saint-Quentin-Fallavier penitentiary center.