First woman in France sentenced to life without parole for rape and murder of schoolgirl

Dahbia Benkired has been sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for raping, torturing, and killing 12-year-old Lola Daviet in 2022, the first time such a sentence has ever been handed down to a woman in France.

A Paris court handed down the maximum sentence to 27-year-old Dahbia Benkired on Friday, following her conviction for the rape, torture, and murder of Lola Daviet, whose body was found in a plastic trunk outside her home in northeastern Paris.

Lola's mother and brother embraced and broke down in tears as the verdict was read. Lola's father died in 2024 following his daughter's death.

Throughout the trial, Dahbia Benkired remained largely emotionless and showed no reaction during the reading of the verdict.

The crime horrified France and sparked political debate after it emerged that Benkired, born in Algeria, was undocumented and had been ordered to leave the country two months before the murder.

A case that shocked France

Lola's body was found stuffed inside a plastic trunk on a Paris street near her home.

The 12-year-old had returned from school on 14 October 2022 to the building in the northeast of the French capital where her parents worked as door attendants.

Surveillance footage showed Benkired, who was homeless and unemployed but staying at her sister's apartment in the same building, meeting the child shortly after 3 pm.

When Lola failed to return home, her parents raised the alarm. An hour and a half later, Benkired was seen on camera again in the building’s entrance hall, surrounded by suitcases, including the large trunk where the girl's body would later be found.

Benkrired was arrested shortly afterwards and, following multiple psychiatric evaluations, deemed fit to stand trial. She has been held at Fresnes prison, south of Paris, for the past three years.

"I'm indifferent"

At the Paris court on Friday, after an hour-long closing statement, the attorney general requested an irreducible life sentence. Only a handful of such sentences have been handed down since it was introduced in 1994.

The punishment, sometimes referred to as "real life imprisonment," means there is no possibility of early release or a reduction in the length of the sentence.

However, French law allows a review after 30 years, upon request by the convicted person. A special panel of five judges from the Court of Cassation, the country's highest court, may authorise release, but only if it poses no serious threat to public order and after consulting victims' families.

A troubled background and chilling detachment

Experts told the court on Thursday that Benkired is criminally responsible for her actions.

They found no sign of mental illness or impaired judgement, describing her as of "normal intelligence" and free of any "psychiatric pathology."

One psychiatric report described her as "cold, passive-aggressive, with contradictory and fantastical speech," exhibiting "pathological narcissism," antisocial behaviour and "a very high risk of reoffending."

A second evaluation found "no depressive, anxious or post-traumatic symptoms" and noted her "very low empathy."

Her emotional detachment has been noted since her arrest. "At no moment did she show any sign of regret, to the point that it made me doubt her guilt despite all the evidence pointing to her. The facts were so horrific that I expected her to break down," a police officer testified.

When shown photos of the tortured victim, Benkired said: "I feel indifferent."

The court also examined Benkired’s past: a childhood marked by violence in Algeria, alleged sexual abuse and early cannabis use after arriving in France at 16.

Unable to find social or professional stability, she claimed that she drifted into sex work.

In her final words to the court before the jury retired to deliberate, Benkired said: "I ask for forgiveness, it's horrible what I did, and that’s all I have to say."

During the hearing, Benkired sat in the dock with a blank stare, never showing emotion.

Members of Lola's family wore matching T-shirts bearing a drawing of the young girl and the words "You will be the sun of our lives and the star of our nights."