LIVE – Lelandais trial: after the accused’s apologies, the civil parties expect more

At the helm for about an hour and a half, Nordahl Lelandais’ mother describes her son as someone “kind, gentle”, “who was not aggressive”.

When the Advocate General asks her why, in her opinion, her son finds himself before an Assize Court for the second time, she hesitates.

“For me it was alcohol and drugs that made him switch,” says Christiane Lelandais.

Asked about her life since her son was accused in several cases, she sobbed: “We can’t do anything anymore… we don’t have the right to live. I don’t have the right to smile.”

After the interventions of his sister and his mother, Nordahl Lelandais pointed to the “hard” questions that were asked of them.

“It’s not up to them to answer for me, they don’t know,” he says.

After Nordahl Lelandais’ apologies, Maëlys’ father’s lawyer reports that the family is “a little angry at the maneuver” of the accused, “which they consider a little late and not sufficiently invested”.

Me Laurent Boguet, however, encourages Nordahl Lelandais to “explain”, as the accused said he wanted to do after admitting the murder of the little girl.

“There are indeed important gray areas which are the result of his positions. If he is now decided to talk to us about it, his word will be welcome”, declares on BFMTV Joachim’s lawyer from Araujo.

“It may be a first step towards a little humanity (…), but we expect more”, comments Me Yves Crespin about the apologies of Nordahl Lelandais. For the lawyer for the associations L’enfant bleu and La voix de l’enfant, live from the Grenoble court for BFMTV, this statement by the accused could sign “the beginning of a defense strategy”.

“He apologized but it is the least of things for an accused who had confessed to the crimes he is accused of,” said the lawyer.

“We hope that he will take a step towards the truth and that he will have a word of humanity towards the parents”, continues Me Crespin.

The Assize Court hears the half-sister of Nordahl Lelandais. Born in 1977, she says she had “a certain complicity” with the one she considers her “brother” during their childhood.

“My brother was someone helpful, available,” she describes.

She adds that she discovered another aspect of Nordahl Lelandais’ personality with the media coverage of the cases to which he is linked: “Shortly before what he was accused of, he started taking drugs. He was not quite the same. Less playful than before”.

Me Fabien Rajon, the lawyer for Maëlys’ mother, says he is disappointed with the testimony of the half-sister, and accuses her of trivializing the facts.

“Whatever I might say or do, it will be badly perceived. We have to move forward. I love my brother, I will always be there for my brother. Despite all the points that I hate in him,” she defends herself.

On this first day of hearing, Nordahl Lelandais asked to speak. Asked by the President of the Assize Court about all the charges against him, he stood up and then declared:

“I would like to turn to Maëlys’ family, I apologize to them. I did kill Maëlys but I didn’t want to. I will explain the facts during the hearing.”

As a reminder, during his trial for the murder of Arthur Noyer, Nordahl Lelandais had made similar statements, acknowledging the blows but ensuring that he had not killed voluntarily: “I killed him but I never wanted to kill him. I never wanted to kill him.”

Me Caroline Rémond, who defends the two families of the little cousins ​​of Nordahl Lelandais, demanded the camera for the hearing of her clients, in order to preserve their anonymity.

This request was rejected by the court.

The request was supported by the lawyer for the association L’enfant bleu, a civil party in this trial, especially since the videos in which Nordahl Lelandais films himself sexually assaulting the two little girls will be broadcast.

The trial of Nordahl Lelandais began with the draw of the six assize jurors. Four men and two women will judge the former soldier for the murder of Maëlys de Araujo and the sexual assault of two of his little cousins.

The trial of Nordahl Lelandais has just opened. The president of the Assize Court of Isère, a rare thing, agreed that the cameras could film the courtroom until the arrival of the court.

Me Bernard Boulloud had to deal with Nordahl Lelandais. Arthur Noyer’s family lawyer describes a “high-flying manipulator”.

“He tried to manipulate the psychiatric experts, the investigators. He also tried to manipulate the magistrates, he remembers. Nordahl Lelandais puts his intelligence at the service of his criminal work.”

Me Bernard Boulloud believes that the murderer of young Corporal Arthur Noyer believes “is someone asocial, he has no empathy for anyone”.

The lawyer for the association L’enfant bleu, a civil party in this trial, assures that “everyone is waiting for answers” from Nordahl Lelandais.

“Beyond the sentence which will be pronounced, the guilt which is hardly in doubt, until the pronouncement of the decision, I expect a little humanity from Nordahl Lelandais, explains Me Yves Crespin. of humanity will not harm his cause, on the contrary.

From this humanity, the lawyer ensures that it will result from it the truth on the facts which occurred four years ago. “This will make it possible to know what really happened on that night of August 26, what were the acts committed on Maëlys and what were his motivations when he attacked Maëlys, when he attacked his two little cousins “, continues the lawyer.

Maëlys’ father, Joachim de Araujo, expects nothing from his daughter’s murderer.

“I don’t know if we can have words of sincerity from him,” he said briefly as he arrived in court.

Joachim de Araujo hopes that “the longest sentence” will be handed down at the end of the trial, which should last for three weeks.

Maëlys’ father’s lawyer hopes that the debates will provide answers to the little girl’s murder. “The trial is always a moment of truth,” said Me Laurent Boguet.

“It is for him it is the last possibility to enroll in a search for responsibility, in a word to assume in full the commission of the facts which are reproached to him”, continues the council.

Maëlys’ father, mother and sister entered the courtroom carrying portraits of the little girl killed in 2017.

Jennifer de Araujo, Maëlys’ mother, has just arrived at the Grenoble court. Accompanied by her lawyer, she did not wish to speak.

“A word to simply tell you that the time for justice has arrived, declared his lawyer Me Rajon. The time has come to put Nordahl Lelandais in the face of these crimes. We will do it with dignity and combativeness and above all for Maëlys.

A banner “Truth and justice for Maëlys” was displayed in court before the start of the trial.

The former military dog ​​handler has just arrived in court in Grenoble, where he is to be tried for three weeks for the murder of Maëlys.

The accused has just been taken from his cell in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier prison (Isère) to join the Grenoble court. The convoy is on its way.

The civil parties are awaiting a heavy sanction, but Nordahl Lelandais has already been sentenced to 20 years in prison for the murder of Arthur Noyer. This time he faces life imprisonment.

If he is sentenced to this penalty, it will necessarily prevail over the first. If he is convicted but the jurors opt for another sanction, he can request a “confusion of sentences” from the sentence enforcement judge (JAP): according to this principle, the highest conviction prevails over the lighter.

In the case of Nordahl Lelandais, beyond a verdict “up to par”, Jennifer Cleyet-Marrel, Maëlys’ mother, would like the accused to “tell the truth”.

During this trial, Nordahl Lelandais will also have to explain himself on the sexual assaults of two little cousins, as well as on the detention and recording of child pornography images.

Like the disappearance of Maëlys De Araujo, the facts date back to the summer of 2017. Nordahl Lelandais admitted the attacks at the end of 2018.

He is accused of having caressed the sex of a five-year-old girl on July 11, while she was sleeping alone in a room. Then to have reproduced these same gestures, in the same circumstances, on August 20, on a six-year-old child.

The obsession of the Maëlys de Araujo family is that Nordahl Lelandais succeeds in “deceiving” the Assize Court of Grenoble, who judges him from this Monday, as he cheated on all the wedding guests on the evening of August 26, 2017.

During this night of celebration, the then 8-year-old girl disappears, triggering an intense search. His body was found six months later, on February 14, 2018, on the instructions of Nordahl Lelandais.

The three weeks of trial scheduled will perhaps help to clarify the gray areas that persist in this case.

Follow here the first day of the trial of Nordahl Lelandais for the murder of little Maëlys de Araujo, in August 2017.