Bayonne, France, Feb 24 (AFP/APP): Prosecutors on Friday charged a 16-year-old boy with murder over the fatal stabbing of his Spanish teacher during class earlier this week in southwest France, his lawyer said.
The teenager reported a “little voice” suggested he kill Agnes Lassalle, 52, at the school in the southwestern seaside town of Saint-Jean-de-Luz on Wednesday, according to a prosecutor.
Lawyer Thierry Sagardoytho told journalists that his client would be held in custody at an unnamed “facility that will take into account his youth and the care he needs”.
“We are speaking about a young man who was previously not on any judicial or school radar and who acted suddenly based on personal motives that I will not divulge publicly but that need to be probed by psychiatrists,” he said.
This was necessary to determine whether he might have suffered from “altered” judgement, the lawyer said, adding that he had been shocked by the results of an initial psychiatric examination of the boy while in detention.
Prosecutor Jerome Bourrier said on Thursday that this first assessment showed the teenager suffered from “a form of reactive anxiety that could trouble his judgement”.
It reported “elements of depression” evolving over the past year, but no “mental illness such as schizophrenia, a manic phase, melancholia or mental slowness”.
The teenager tried to commit suicide in October, the prosecutor said.
But he was found to be capable of bearing criminal responsibility for his acts.
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