A French family has been left so traumatized by a home invasion and an attempted kidnapping of their 8-year-old daughter that they are selling their home and moving away.
In the harrowing case in Brétigny-sur-Orge, which occurred on April 21, an Algerian migrant conducted a home invasion of the family house armed with a pitchfork. Inside, he exposed his genitals to the family, demanded to leave with the small girl, and told the parents: “Give me the girl or I’ll kill you.”
The suspect, in his 20s and with multiple identities, was arrested on April 21, but his trial only started this week in Evry Criminal Court. A judge has ordered the trial postponed pending for a hearing from a psychiatric expert after the defendant claimed to “hear voices.”
The Algerian has been in France for a year and had an open deportation order. In the past, a psychiatrist had already determined that the man’s “intelligence is impaired” and that his “very dangerous.”
The mother, Johanna, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, spoke with French newspaper Le Parisien.
She said that on Easter Monday, the day of the incident, the man broke in.
“It was early in the morning, we were asleep. We heard a noise. We thought it was our neighbors doing work on the fence. But the noises seemed too close. I ran downstairs and saw the shutters open and a hand. I screamed,” she told Le Parisien.
The Algerian man tried to enter the house by lifting up the metal shutter, but without success.
“He was in front of the window with a pitchfork he’d taken from the garden. He stared at me for a long time, so I went back upstairs to call the police,” Johanna continued. “I took a picture of him; our daughter had woken up and was next to me. I told her to hide.”
The Algerian then ran to another window and smashed it hard with the pitchfork, shattering the glass, at which point the man entered the house.
“My daughter and I were hiding upstairs in the bedroom. My partner stayed in the hallway to find out what he wanted… My partner told me to get away. I threw cushions out the window to break our fall.” said Johanna.
The man then ripped off his sweater and pulled down his pants, revealing his penis. He then began masturbating right in front of Johanna’s partner. He picked up the pitchfork and started screaming, “I’m going to kll you.”
He then yelled: “Give me the little girl, or I’ll kill you.”
The mother then grabbed her daughter and jumped out of the second story to the yard below. The woman’s partner then grabbed the family dog and jumped out the window as well, resulting in an injured ankle that left the man unable to attend work for two days.
Police officers arrived on scene shortly thereafter and arrested the Algerian inside the family’s bathroom.
“Since then, we’ve only gone back to collect our things and show the house to the real estate agent,” Johanna sighs. “It’s traumatic. At the slightest noise, I jump. And my daughter is scared. We had started work to restart a business. Now, we’re back at my parents’ house, starting from scratch, all ecause of him.”
Given the man’s potential psychiatric evaluation, it is possible he will not serve any prison time. Many defendants in Europe realize that claiming psychiatric illness is the ticket to a more lenient sentence and the ability to avoid jail by being placed in a psychiatric institution.
Remix News has long documented instances of foreigners participating in home invasions across France, including raping the victims in numerous cases, and in others, even committing assaults and murders.