Nordahl Lelandais was sentenced this Friday to life imprisonment with 22 years of security for the murder of Maëlys, committed in 2017.
“The family is relieved,” said Maître Caroline Rémond, the lawyer for the little cousins of Nordahl Lelandais, when leaving the court. The latter was accused of having sexually assaulted them and of having filmed with his mobile phone. Nordahl Lelandais is sentenced to life imprisonment with a security period of 22 years, “which would allow him to make his first request for release by then”, also recalls the lawyer who therefore gives him “an appointment in 22 years old”.
For his part, the accused who stood in his box, reacted calmly to the announcement of the verdict, while Maëlys’ family had no apparent reaction to the statement of the verdict. This sentence of a maximum sentence which Nordhal Lelandais has just received, falls on the same day as his birthday, as noted by AFP.
Nordahl Lelandais will not appeal
Nordahl Lelandais’ lawyer, Maître Jakubowicz, preferred to put an end to the suspense concerning a possible appeal and “thus indicated that there will not be one”. He explains “that there will be no appeal because it is in the continuity of what Nordahl Lelandais said at the hearing”, and adds “that he became aware of a certain number of things”.
“What can we conclude from this trial? Confessions and more mysteries, and I believe that the mystery will remain until the end”, declared the general prosecutor of Grenoble, Jacques Dallest, yesterday. The latter requested life imprisonment with a security period of 22 years against the former dog handler, whom he described as “absolute social danger”.
The years of investigations and long weeks of hearings will not have made it possible to remove all the doubts and the mysteries about the death of Maëlys. Yes Nordahl Lelandais has, from the start of the trial, confessed to having killed the little girl, the circumstances of her death remain unclear. While he initially claimed that the little one had climbed “voluntarily” into his car, not having wanted to kill him “intentionally”, Nordahl Lelandais finally admitted having carried “voluntary blows” to the child.
no proof of a potential rape of maëlys
The latter has also continuously refuted the sexual motive in this case, despite the accusations of sexual assault on two of his 4 and 6 year old cousins that he even filmed with his mobile phone, and despite the evidence against him. on the consultation of child pornography on the Internet.
“We cannot demonstrate rape. I understand that morally speaking this may shock, but we have nothing to reproach for the crime of rape of Maelys to Nordahl Lelandais”, recalled the Advocate General in his indictment. No physical evidence of a possible sexual assault or rape could be found by the investigators. In their argument, the lawyers of Nordahl Lelandais however asked not to make a link between the attacks of the two little cousins of the accused and the murder of Maëlys. “The facts must be dissociated,” said Me Pariat.
The six jurors appointed to the draw, who, for the most part, knew neither the functioning of justice nor the case, will therefore have to decide on the guilt of Nordahl Lelandais.
As a reminder, the latter had already been sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment last May for the murder ofArthur Walnut. Whatever the sentence retained by the court this Friday for the murder of Maëlys, the years of prison cannot be added, because in criminal law, a principle of non-accumulation of sentences applies. Only the highest sentence will be retained and served.