A FEMALE illegal migrant who allegedly raped, tortured and suffocated a schoolgirl to death is set to stand trial.
Algerian migrant Dahbia Benkired, now aged 27, is accused of murdering 12-year-old Lola Daviet in a case that shocked France three years ago.
The young girl was discovered in a plastic suitcase near her building in the French capital of Paris.
Investigators say Benkired slashed Lola’s throat with scissors and a box cutter before taping her face with duct tape, which led to her death.
She placed the body in a trunk and convinced a friend to drive her and the bags to his home, cops said.
The accused then took a taxi with the trunk back to the building where her sister lived, according to the investigators.
She fled when she saw police deployed in the area, but was arrested the next day.
Locals saw Benkired in the lobby of the apartment block in the 19th district on October 14, 2022, carrying suitcases and a heavy trunk covered in a blanket, the investigation showed.
An hour and a half earlier, security footage showed Benkired approaching the girl as she returned from school.
She was then seen leading her into the flat her sister occupied in the building.
Benkired told investigators she had been angry with the girl’s mother, who had refused to give her an entry badge for the building, after her sister had given her a key to her flat.
She was found to have overstayed a student visa and failed to comply with a notice to leave France.
The accused admitted in court today that she forced the young girl to undress and wash herself, then perform a sex act on her “for my pleasure”.
Benkired had a tough upbringing with her aunts before she settled in France in 2013, the investigation showed.
She told the court that she had been abused by family and neighbours as she grew up, claiming her aunts “forced her to watch pornographic films… and groped her in the forest”.
“It’s horrible what I did. I regret it,” Benkired said, asking the girl’s relatives to forgive her.
Benkired, whose trial is to last until next Friday, faces a maximum sentence of life in jail.
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