A playground transformed into a war zone. The Independent relates the trial, Thursday in Carcassonne, of a legionnaire of 4th Foreign Regiment of Castelnaudary. This resident of the small village of Fanjeaux (Aude), in Lauragais, had imagined a radical method to protect his garden. He had trapped the portal with a training grenade stolen from the barracks.
Effective. Too much even. On Saturday March 23, three children aged 8, 10 and 13 entered the field, bordered by orchards and a hiking trail, where they used to play. One of them touched the wire connected to the grenade, triggering several detonations. The injuries of the three children are essentially auditory and psychological.
Double sanction
In court, the 44-year-old legionnaire, straight in his rangers, explained that he wanted to scare off an intruder who had already vandalized his property. “I understand my fault […] but in no case did I want to inflict injury,” he defended himself, according to the regional daily.
Already sanctioned by his regiment with 30 days of arrest, the soldier was sentenced to six months in prison. He will also have to pay 500 euros in moral damages to each of the three adventurous children.