safinator
11-25-2011, 06:20 PM
France is in shock over the rape and murder of a 13-year old girl whose alleged teenager killer was admitted to a high school despite awaiting trial for another rape case.
Grief has turned to anger at how the unnamed 17-year old was granted admission to the private boarding school in Chambon-sur-Lignon, central-southeastern France, given that he had spent four months in prison last year over the rape of another fellow pupil in another region.
Police say the teenager had admitted to "killing, raping and burning" Agnès Marin after luring her to a forest near the Cévenol international school in the Haute-Loire region, where they both studied, to go mushroom picking.
"She was killed in an extremely violent and brutal fashion," Jean-Yves Coquillat, the Clermont-Ferrand prosecutor said, adding only that he was armed with several "objects".
Yet he was an outwardly well-behaved, quiet pupil. "He presented no danger, but psychiatry is not an exact science," he said.
The case turned political when Prime Minister François Fillon called a special cabinet meeting on Monday to discuss "possible failings in the chain of justice" and Michel Mercier, the justice minister, ordered an inquiry to ascertain whether any "fault" had been committed by judicial or school authorities.The adolescent was awaiting trial for the rape of a 15-year former fellow pupil from his native village of Nages-et-Solorgues in the southern Gard region. "The circumstances were identical, except the victim (of the first attack) remained alive," said the prosecutor.
"From what my daughter told me, I felt that this would happen," said the survivor's mother.
And yet psychiatrists concluded that the boy posed no threat to those around him and could be "reinserted" and "readapted" to normal life. He was released from detention ahead of his trial, weaned off a drug addiction and obliged to receive regular psychiatric treatment.
His parents, a teacher and hospital administrator, moved to another region and after receiving refusals from several schools, he was admitted to the Cévenol international school for children from 11 to 18, specialising in giving problem students "a second chance".
On Monday, its headmaster Philip Bauwens said: "We knew he had had problems with the law, but didn't know the nature of those problems".
"The school managers discovered the frightening truth at the same time as Agnès' parents," said deputy-head, Jean-Michel Hieaux. "That we had taken in a young man charged with rape." "I am dumbfounded that through slackness and irresponsibility a system can allow a particularly violent youth to be welcomed to a mixed boarding school out in the open countryside," he said.
But the prosecutor said the school "received him in full awareness of the facts (about his past)".
Frédéric Marin, Agnès' father, said: "School heads told us before witnesses that they were aware of his past. It was known since June he had a run-in with another girl." "This is a pointless death that could have been avoided. Error is human but we paid a very high price," said her mother Paola.
An investigation is under way into how much the school knew.
Matthieu Bonduelle of France's SM magistrates union said dealing with such a case was complex.
"Today one cannot, by law, tell a headmaster that a given pupil is under investigation for rape. Why? Because of the sworn secrecy of an ongoing inquiry and the presumption of innocence," he said.
"Should they have shut this youth up for the rest of his days, removed him from the school system? In other words put him in a situation where the risk of repeat offending would be even higher? It's a complex question."
Pierre Moscovici, campaign director for Socialist presidential candidate François Hollande, said: "When a minor is in this kind of situation, you need closed centres."
Justice Minister Michel Mercier said too much hung on psychological profiles of such individuals. "Sometimes a single expert opinion can be fallible. We need to better organise evaluating the degree of danger (of an indvidual) at least in the most serious cases."
Agnes Marin (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/8904642/France-in-shock-over-rape-and-murder-of-13-year-old-girl.html)
Grief has turned to anger at how the unnamed 17-year old was granted admission to the private boarding school in Chambon-sur-Lignon, central-southeastern France, given that he had spent four months in prison last year over the rape of another fellow pupil in another region.
Police say the teenager had admitted to "killing, raping and burning" Agnès Marin after luring her to a forest near the Cévenol international school in the Haute-Loire region, where they both studied, to go mushroom picking.
"She was killed in an extremely violent and brutal fashion," Jean-Yves Coquillat, the Clermont-Ferrand prosecutor said, adding only that he was armed with several "objects".
Yet he was an outwardly well-behaved, quiet pupil. "He presented no danger, but psychiatry is not an exact science," he said.
The case turned political when Prime Minister François Fillon called a special cabinet meeting on Monday to discuss "possible failings in the chain of justice" and Michel Mercier, the justice minister, ordered an inquiry to ascertain whether any "fault" had been committed by judicial or school authorities.The adolescent was awaiting trial for the rape of a 15-year former fellow pupil from his native village of Nages-et-Solorgues in the southern Gard region. "The circumstances were identical, except the victim (of the first attack) remained alive," said the prosecutor.
"From what my daughter told me, I felt that this would happen," said the survivor's mother.
And yet psychiatrists concluded that the boy posed no threat to those around him and could be "reinserted" and "readapted" to normal life. He was released from detention ahead of his trial, weaned off a drug addiction and obliged to receive regular psychiatric treatment.
His parents, a teacher and hospital administrator, moved to another region and after receiving refusals from several schools, he was admitted to the Cévenol international school for children from 11 to 18, specialising in giving problem students "a second chance".
On Monday, its headmaster Philip Bauwens said: "We knew he had had problems with the law, but didn't know the nature of those problems".
"The school managers discovered the frightening truth at the same time as Agnès' parents," said deputy-head, Jean-Michel Hieaux. "That we had taken in a young man charged with rape." "I am dumbfounded that through slackness and irresponsibility a system can allow a particularly violent youth to be welcomed to a mixed boarding school out in the open countryside," he said.
But the prosecutor said the school "received him in full awareness of the facts (about his past)".
Frédéric Marin, Agnès' father, said: "School heads told us before witnesses that they were aware of his past. It was known since June he had a run-in with another girl." "This is a pointless death that could have been avoided. Error is human but we paid a very high price," said her mother Paola.
An investigation is under way into how much the school knew.
Matthieu Bonduelle of France's SM magistrates union said dealing with such a case was complex.
"Today one cannot, by law, tell a headmaster that a given pupil is under investigation for rape. Why? Because of the sworn secrecy of an ongoing inquiry and the presumption of innocence," he said.
"Should they have shut this youth up for the rest of his days, removed him from the school system? In other words put him in a situation where the risk of repeat offending would be even higher? It's a complex question."
Pierre Moscovici, campaign director for Socialist presidential candidate François Hollande, said: "When a minor is in this kind of situation, you need closed centres."
Justice Minister Michel Mercier said too much hung on psychological profiles of such individuals. "Sometimes a single expert opinion can be fallible. We need to better organise evaluating the degree of danger (of an indvidual) at least in the most serious cases."
Agnes Marin (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/8904642/France-in-shock-over-rape-and-murder-of-13-year-old-girl.html)