An innocent 12-year-old girl was killed in the worst way imaginable when a female attacker allegedly abducted her from her apartment block after school and subjected her to depraved levels of violence
The world was shocked by CCTV images of a 12 year old girl arriving home from school, only to disappear and turn up dead in a trunk by her parents’ work hours later.
And it has since been revealed that she suffered the most horrific fate imaginable, allegedly being raped, tortured and then murdered by Dahbia Benkired, an Algerian woman who was staying in the same apartment block with her sister and was under an expulsion order to leave France.
A shocking video of a young girl’s alleged killer dragging a trunk containing her corpse into a bar – and details of the gruesome suffering she endured in the hours leading up to her death – were heard in court this week.
Lola Daviet was allegedly raped, attacked with scissors and a box cutter and had her head partially severed by Benkired, then 24. Lola also had her head, nose and mouth bound with tape and died from suffocation. It is claimed that Benkired carried out the attack as revenge for the girl’s caretaker mother refusing to give Benkired a key to the apartment block.
The court was shown CCTV footage of the migrant opening a suitcase containing the girl’s body while sitting at a busy Paris bar hours after the murder. According to authorities, the numbers ‘1’ and ‘0’ were mysteriously written on the victim’s feet.
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The schoolgirl suffered 38 wounds on her back and neck before dying from asphyxia, a doctor told the court.
“There is physical, psychological and moral suffering”, the doctor said, as images of her injuries were shown to the court on day two of Benkired’s trial. “Asphyxia is very anxiety-provoking, it goes beyond physical pain. There were probably one or more impacts to the head, which creates physical pain.”
Several family members left the court as images of Lola’s injuries were shown while other shocking details came to light, including that the 12-year-old sustained “visible traumatic injuries” to her genitals. “There was hemorrhagic trauma to various parts of the body, particularly to the child’s private parts”, the doctor added.
The child was also allegedly forced to perform a sex act on Benkired and had a ‘large wound’ on her face, a slashed back and her ‘head was partially severed’. After allegedly killing her, Benkired dragged her body around Paris in the plastic trunk, before dumping it on the street where it was found by a homeless man.
Lola was seen entering the apartment building and talking to Benkired at around 3pm before being taken into an apartment. Distressing images of Lola’s naked body squashed into the suitcase with her arms bound together and face completely covered in tape were shown to the court, causing her family to walk out.
And CCTV, seen by the court, showed the moment Benkired appeared to open the suitcase containing the girl’s body while at a bar on Rue Manin just hours after the killing on October 14, 2022.
Benkired is said to have immediately confessed when questioned by police and apologised to her family as the court case got underway on October 17.
“What I did was horrible,” Benkired, now 27, said in her first words to the Paris Assize Court on Friday, according to Le Parisien, The Huffington Post and NDTV. “I would like to ask the whole family for forgiveness. What I did was horrible and I regret it.”
Benkired settled in France in 2013, aged 14, but was subject to an expulsion order after overstaying a student visa in August 2022, just two months before Lola was murdered. Police found a pair of scissors, an oyster knife and an IKEA knife in Benkired’s flat with traces of blood.
Speaking in court last Friday, Lola’s mother Delphine Daviet, who was wearing a white T-shirt with a picture of her daughter, demanded “justice”. The girl’s family sat in court wearing matching t-shirts with the words: ‘You were the sun of our life, you will be the star of our nights.’
The alleged killer had a tough upbringing with aunts before she settled in France in 2013, the investigation showed. She told the court that she had been abused by family and neighbours as she grew up, claiming her aunts ‘forced her to watch pornographic films… and groped her in the forest.’
She claimed to have suffered a mental breakdown following her parents’ deaths in 2019 and 2020. and said she smoked up to “20 [cannabis] joints a day” to deal with this “tipping point”. The defendant told investigators she had been angry with the girl’s mother, who had refused to give her a badge to get through the apartment block’s front door, after her sister had given her a key to her flat..
Lola’s brother Thibault Daviet, speaking on behalf of the whole family including his late father, said: “I would like to speak on behalf of the whole family… and of course my father, who is unfortunately no longer here because of the same person. We would like you to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, to all of France and to us”.
Benkired said in court: “I would like to ask the whole family for forgiveness. What I did was horrible and I regret it.”
Under French law, even though Benkired has admitted the crimes against her, the court still needs to establish motive and the circumstances. The trial continues as the accused faces a maximum sentence of life in jail.
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