The ‘accomplices’ on trial after the killing of history teacher Samuel Paty—beheaded by an Islamist in October 2020—are at a crucial stage in legal proceedings. The schoolgirl behind the campaign of harassment that led to the teacher’s death has now admitted lying and apologised to the victim’s family.
The teenager was only 13 at the time, but is now 17. She had already received an 18-month suspended prison sentence in 2023 for slanderous denunciation. She was the source of the rumours spread about Paty. In 2020, she accused the teacher of asking Muslim pupils to leave the classroom when he showed them cartoons of Mohammed, as part of a lesson on freedom of expression.
She now admits that she lied and has explained the diabolical mechanism that led her to spread the rumours that caused the savage murder of the teacher. She had been suspended from school for two days for ‘inappropriate behaviour.’ Afraid to tell her parents about the punishment, she turned the situation to her advantage, explaining that she had been excluded from class for having demonstrated her opposition to the publication of the cartoons in front of the pupils—thus proving her Muslim probity in the eyes of her parents.
On the evening of October 8th, 2020, together with her father, she went to lodge a complaint. She has since confessed: “My lie held up and everyone believed me.”
The young girl’s statements then prompted her father to contact an Islamist preacher, and subsequently to produce a defamatory video that launched the virtual manhunt for Samuel Paty, culminating in his murder. It took just one week to achieve this terrible result.
In court, the young woman apologised to Samuel Paty’s family. “I destroyed your life,” she admitted, in tears. She also apologised “to the teachers for (her) behaviour and (her) lie” and to everyone in the dock, because “without her lie” they would not be there.
This is the first time the apology has been made. She made no apology at her previous trial in 2023. She defended herself by explaining that she had tried then but failed. Her words did not convince the victim’s family, who said that she had “made no effort to find the truth.”
Three weeks ago, another defendant confessed his guilt: “It’s the worst thing I’ve ever done in my life,” admitted a student close to the murderer, who reinforced the decision to commit the act in the course of their internet exchanges.
The Paris Special Assize Court hosts the schoolgirl’s father on trial, as one of several defendants now facing a retrial. He could receive a 30-year prison sentence for ‘association de malfaiteurs à caractère terroriste.’ He is due to be heard by the court on December 2nd. For now he has always denied the facts and his personal guilt.
