The defense of Lelandais refutes the consultation of child pornography sites
Since the beginning of the hearing, the defense of Nordahl Lelandais tries to refute the fact that the accused consulted child pornography sites. Arguing that it was pornographic content.
After a skirmish with the lawyers of the civil parties, it is with the director of investigation that the tone rises. The gendarme maintains before the Assize Court that Nordahl Lelandais viewed videos showing young girls, even very young girls, in situations of a sexual nature.
“So Nordahl Lelandais, is he a serial killer huh?”, Me Jakubowicz ironically.
The director of investigation answers firmly: “I cannot confirm it, nor deny it!”
The precautions taken by Lelandais to erase his murder
The gendarme returned to all the precautions taken by Nordahl Lelandais to erase his murder: “He erased his traces, his clothes, in his car, he erased his traces, his telephone traces and of course those of Maelys.”
Little Maëlys was reportedly killed in the minutes that followed her getting into Nordahl Lelandais’ car. According to the investigator who testified, the fatal blows were delivered after 2:49 a.m., four minutes after Lelandais left with the girl.
Nordahl Lelandais was absent 41 minutes from the wedding. According to the investigator, he recovered the body of the child at 4:10 a.m. near a railway line. He drives for 45 minutes and then arrives in the communal forest, near where the body was found six months later.
He is then absent from the wedding for 41min.
At 4:10 a.m. he retrieves the body where he temporarily deposited it near the railway line, then arrives in the communal forest at 4:56 a.m. Nordahl Lelandais deleted 139 files from his phone during the evening.
Investigators will take “several days” to find Maëlys’ body
The gendarme then returns to the discovery of the body of Maëlys. The decisive element will be the discovery of a trace of the girl’s blood in Nordahl Lelandais’ car. The latter will confess to having killed the child and lead the investigators to where he deposited his body.
“It’s very cold, it’s snowing. On his instructions, we climb to an altitude of 756m and he points out an area where he says he has deposited Maëlys’ body. A dog marks under a rock where there is a cavity. We will have to several days of research to find all the bones, his clothes, his shoes, and several locks of hair.
Investigators focused for months on Nordahl Lelandais’ vehicle, particularly because it was filmed on August 27, a few hours after the child’s disappearance, cleaning it meticulously. For 1h44, he cleans the trunk and the front passenger seat.
The “strange behavior” of Nordahl Lelandais at the wedding
The director of investigation returned to the evening when little Maëlys disappeared. He recalls that Nordahl Lelandais was a last minute guest at this wedding. A long-time friend of the groom, he had been invited the day before for an aperitif and then stayed for dinner.
During the evening, Maëlys is seen chatting with her “boyfriend”, Nordahl Lelandais. He returns to the “strange behavior” of the accused, who left the evening “as soon as the research began”.
“Nordahl Lelandais is seen by a witness outside the village hall chatting with Maëlys and telling him ‘you go through the main entrance hall, I cut through there'”, details the investigator .
A few hours after the disappearance of the girl, Nordahl Lelandais is seen cleaning his vehicle in a washing station. He will be heard twice, the clothes he was wearing that evening were seized. Except for the shorts he says he threw in the trash after vomiting on them. A medical examination reports “scratches”.
Nordahl Lelandais was taken into custody on August 31, 2017. He answered all the questions, confirmed that he had used cocaine on the evening of the wedding. He is released but placed under close surveillance.
On September 2, the investigation shifts, Maëlys’ DNA is found in the accused’s vehicle. Lelandais is taken into custody the next day. He will then say that the little girl got into her car with a little blond boy to see if there were any dogs.
Investigator describes ‘long and complex’ investigation
The director of investigation describes the course of the investigations of his men. “A long, complex investigation despite a suspect identified quickly,” he said.
“Despite the lies and the answers adapted to the elements of Mr. Lelandais’ file, the relevance of the expertise made it possible to answer questions and to identify two other victims”, estimates the gendarme.
Priority was given to the search for Maëlys. “This hope was extinguished in February 2018”, he recalls.
Pass of arms between lawyers for the civil parties and the defense
Before the hearing of the investigators, Me Jakubowicz wanted to make a correction about the day before. During the interrogation of Nordahl Lelandais, an exchange with a high school student during her detention was mentioned.
“Nowhere is it written that she is a minor! She says she is 20 years old”, wishes to recall the counsel for the accused.
Me Rajon, Maëlys’ mother’s lawyer, reacts by saying that on the girl’s Pinterest site, which Nordahl Lelandais consulted, she looks much younger. He recalls that the title of the videos is “equivocal” and that they “feature teenage girls”.
Me Jakubowicz does not stop there and returns to the fact that his client viewed pornographic videos from a telephone he had obtained in his cell. “Are these child pornography sites? The response from the police is clear: ‘no web consultation is carried out on child pornography sites'”.
The disappointment of Maëlys’ father’s lawyer
After Nordahl Lelandais’ five-hour interrogation, Maëlys’ father’s lawyer felt that the accused did not “give himself up”. The latter had however assured that he would explain himself during the debates.
Drugs, sex addiction: Lelandais presented himself as a “lost man”
On Wednesday, Nordahl Lelandais was questioned at length about his life course, his childhood, his education – “school was not my thing”, he said – then about his time in the army, his dismissal and the years of wandering that followed.
He positioned himself as a “lost” man, who used a lot of cocaine, spent his days watching pornographic videos for hours. Nordahl Lelandais recognizes today to be “the only one responsible for this choice of life”.
The court also questioned him about his conditions of detention and his relationships with women.
The facts about Maëlys’ death examined
This Thursday, on the fourth day of the trial of Nordahl Lelandais, the Assize Court will begin to examine the facts concerning the death of Maëlys de Araujo on the night of August 26 to 27, 2017.
Investigators as well as a gendarme from the Criminal Research Institute of the National Gendarmerie will be heard during the day.