Schoolgirl's murderer is first woman in France to be given life sentence

A French court on Oct 24 sentenced an Algerian woman to life imprisonment without parole for raping, torturing and murdering a schoolgirl in Paris, making her the first woman to receive this maximum sentence.

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Dahbia Benkired was handed an “irreducible life sentence” for killing 12-year-old Lola Daviet in the French capital in 2022, in a case that horrified the country and sparked anti-immigration fervour because the woman did not have the right to be in France.

The sentence is the harshest under the French penal code.

“We believed in justice and we got it,” said Lola’s mother, Ms Delphine Daviet, following the verdict.

Benkired, now aged 27, was detained after Lola went missing in the northeast of Paris.

Her body was then found in a trunk in the lobby of the building where her parents worked as caretakers.

In the verdict, the presiding judge cited the “extreme cruelty of the criminal acts”, describing them as “true torture” and “total dehumanisation”.