The Reims prosecutor, Matthieu Bourrette. (archives) – FRANCOIS LO PRESTI / AFP
A 14-year-old teenager, suspected of having very seriously injured a schoolmate in Reims with a knife after being mocked on the Internet, was indicted for “attempted murder of a 15-year-old minor”, the prosecution said. . He was remanded in custody, in accordance with the prosecution’s requisitions.
Wednesday around noon, the respondent would have made an appointment in a street of the hypercentre to the victim, of the same age, to do battle. He is suspected of having it, within seconds, with a punch and then with an Opinel blow to the temple. The victim’s days were still in danger on Friday as the brain was affected. The two teenagers are educated in 4th year classes at the Saint-Joseph private high school in Reims, a posh establishment in the city. None has a criminal record.
The suspect “expressed no regret during the forty-eight hours of police custody, nor a word of compassion towards the victim and his family. He did not cry or ask for any news from his family, ”the Reims public prosecutor, Matthieu Bourrette, reported at a press conference. The alleged assailant was the subject of insults after having posted in mid-May on the social network Instagram a clip of rap, “one of his passions”, which he had shot.
Difficulty integrating into a new colleague
“The dissemination of this clip had earned him to be the victim of mockery from several of his comrades and in particular from the victim, which he had struggled to bear”, explained the magistrate. According to the respondent, the two had already fought Monday in the establishment, with bare hands, and the victim would have had “the upper hand”. Heard, his parents described a son “nice, reserved”, who would have experienced several situations of bullying from primary school.
They had filed a handrail a year earlier, following a dispute while their son was in public college. According to the prosecutor, “the person concerned had great difficulty integrating” in Saint-Joseph. His mother explained to college officials that she felt overwhelmed by her son and had chosen with her husband to enroll him in a private establishment in September 2020 so that he would be more supervised despite the financial sacrifice that this represented.