At the Assize Court of Isère,
This is called a moment of hearing. A few minutes that could have (once again) changed the trial of Nordahl Lelandais. “Your lies, we are fed up. At the helm, Colleen de Araujo, 16. The young girl takes her courage in both hands and turns to face the box in which the accused is, tried for six days by the Assize Court of Isère for the murder of her little sister, Maëlys, in August 2017 Brown hair, a red top and a black vest, she stares at the 38-year-old former military dog handler and urges him to answer her questions “now”. “Look me in the eyes and tell me what prevented you from saying where Maëlys was for months? “It was very complicated what I had done,” he answers, sheepishly. Did he abuse the girl before killing her? “No, I didn’t rape your sister. »
Answers far from satisfying the teenager. “In fact, you’re the waste,” she says to him. “You had plenty of opportunities to tell the truth, you only thought of yourself”. “Have this courage and this dignity as I have me to speak to you”, she continues. “The truth, I tried to explain it several times, no one believed me”, continues the accused, graying short hair, light sweater. Before adding, embarrassed: “It was complicated to explain why I had taken the life of your little sister. Today I hear your pain. He sits down, walled in silence. “It’s a shame,” breathes the young girl. It’s now or never. Nordahl Lelandais did not crack. He won’t crack.
“He broke us all, he screwed everything up”
“You have committed the unacceptable and it is up to us to suffer the consequences”, adds the teenager who, since the death of her little sister, feels “lonely, really alone”. “She was a great little girl, he ruined everything. The case shattered the family unit into a thousand pieces. The couple formed by the girl’s parents did not last. “We separated with his dad. It was too heavy on a daily basis. I had the impression of seeing Maëlys everywhere in the house, ”says Jennifer, the girl’s mother, at the bar. “When Maëlys was killed, the clan broke up,” she continues. “Everything reminded us of Maëlys, this absence was unbearable”. Then, glancing in the direction of the cubicle, she said of the accused: “He broke us all, he screwed everything up. »
One night, Jennifer dreamed of Maëlys who said to her: “he raped me, he raped me mum”. She woke up with a start. The question haunts her all the more since Nordahl Lelandais is also accused of having sexually assaulted two little cousins. Facts for which he also appears before the Assize Court. He had filmed himself caressing the private parts of these 4 and 6 year old children with his finger. The videos were found during the investigation in his phone and screened in court on Monday. If the accused admits having felt for them “pedophile” inclinations, he affirms once again that “there was no sexual aspect with Maëlys”. “There was no sexual desire with her. »
“Joachim lost 25 kg”
As for Maëlys’ father, Joachim, he describes himself as a “dad lost at sea, as if carried by the waves, trying to get his head out of the water. “. He has placed a portrait of his daughter in front of him and wants to read a letter he wrote to her. “I am a father who has suffered since your kidnapping. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about that famous night. “Joachim has lost 25 kg,” observes his friend who has known him for thirty years, who came to testify. “He has trouble concentrating, there is a certain nostalgia that comes back from time to time. “Sometimes” he is “worried” about him. Joachim’s sister sums up the drama that unfolded in private. “At one point, we no longer knew how to communicate because our pain was too difficult, because we couldn’t say that we were suffering too much, because it was indecent. »
The trial continues until February 18. The accused faces life imprisonment.
Follow the rest of this trial on our journalist’s Twitter account@TiboChevillard