A 24-year-old man has been sentenced to thirty years in prison by a French court after being convicted of raping and killing an 85-year-old woman in her home in 2020.
The thirty-year sentence was handed down to 29-year-old Youssouf Bacar, originally from the French overseas territory of Mayotte, on Tuesday after he had admitted to the rape and murder of 85-year-old Simone Reveau the previous day.
Julien Wattebled, attorney general in the case, argued that Bacar had told different versions of his story and stated the only person who knew the full truth of what happened was the 29-year-old.
“But we didn’t need his confession. Thanks to the investigation, we know everything: he raped this lady twice. Then he strangled her, for three to five minutes, which is how long it takes to kill someone, as the coroner said,” Wattebled said, La Nouvelle Republiquereports.
“You can’t imagine anything worse than what she’s been through. She died for two bottles of wine and two hats,” he added.
Nathanaël Ormillien, the lawyer for Bacar, did not hide his own feelings toward his client saying, “I defend a murderer and a rapist, a bastard of the worst kind. The victim’s family told me they didn’t want to be in my shoes, but the worst place is not mine but theirs. They are the ones who have lost a loved one.”
The case is just the latest to see an elderly person in France sexually abused or murdered in recent years. In 2020, a Congolese man was arrested for raping a 92-year-old woman in a Paris nursing home while working at the home.
A nursing assistant claimed to have caught the 63-year-old African migrant after the sex attack had taken place and he was discovered a short time later by police and arrested.
Earlier this year, a 70-year-old woman was killed in her home in June in the city of Mulhouse. Three migrants, all from Algeria and in France illegally, were later arrested in connection to the murder.