Lyhanna case: main suspect charged with rape and murder
A 41-year-old man arrested following the disappearance of an 11-year-old schoolgirl in the Gers department is now facing prosecution for crimes of extreme gravity.
Lyhanna case: main suspect charged with rape and murder
A 41-year-old temporary worker has been charged on Tuesday with the rape and homicide of an eleven-year-old child in the Gers department. The Agen prosecutor's office confirmed this information late in the evening, initially revealed by Le Figaro.
The man, who had been apprehended by law enforcement the day after the disappearance of young Lyhanna in late May in Fleurance, had until now only been prosecuted for abduction and unlawful confinement of a minor. He now faces a life sentence.
Early in the morning, prison authorities had removed the suspect from his cell at Mont-de-Marsan in the Landes to bring him before an investigating magistrate. This judicial hearing was a first since the lifeless body of the girl had been found in early June in an agricultural storage structure at Puycasquier, located around fifteen kilometres from the location of her abduction.
Following the results of the forensic medical examination made public on 24 June — which had established that the child had suffered sexual violence as well as multiple injuries and bruising — the representative of the public prosecutor's office had decided to extend the charges. The file now comprises the qualifications of murder of a person under fifteen years of age aggravated by rape, as well as sexual assault on a minor committed with constraint, violence or threat.
According to Le Figaro, a search of the home conducted on 6 July in Montestruc-sur-Gers in the presence of the suspect reportedly made it possible to find several material elements potentially connected to the victim's death. Imprisoned in solitary confinement, the accused, a family man, benefits from a particularly strict surveillance system due to a suicide threat considered serious. Prison officers carry out rounds every half hour to ensure his physical integrity.
Source: Google News LU FR