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A MAN HAS confessed to raping and killing a nine-year-old girl after brazenly snatching her from a French playground within view of her mother.
The country was left reeling from the crime in the northern city of Calais, where flags flew at half mast, as grisly details emerged about how the girl, Chloe, was kidnapped, raped and strangled in the space of an hour and a half.
The Polish man, who has a long criminal history, confessed to the crime after being arrested on Wednesday night near the woods where the girl’s naked, lifeless body was found.
Chloe was playing with a friend on Wednesday afternoon when she approached the man, who had stopped his car to drink a beer, and sprayed him with a water pistol, prosecutor Jean-Pierre Valensi said at a press conference on Thursday.
The suspect told investigators he grabbed the child and forced her into the red car, driving her to the nearby woods where he sexually assaulted and killed her.
Chloe’s mother, who was present, burst into panicked screams as the man, described by witnesses as bald and wearing sunglasses, shoved her daughter into his car.
Police were alerted to the kidnapping at 3:30 pm and search teams were dispatched, one of which made the grisly discovery of the murdered child at 5pm.
Forensic investigators reported evidence of “strangulation and sexual violence”, said Valensi.
Nearby, police found the red vehicle with Polish number plates, and the driver — heavily under the influence of alcohol — was arrested not far from the scene shortly thereafter.
The suspect “immediately admitted his involvement in the child’s death,” said Valensi.
Questions over criminal past
The man, who had served time in a French prison for robbery, was handed over to Polish authorities in March last year after a Europe-wide arrest warrant was issued in his name.
Calais Mayor Natacha Bouchart said Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve had assured her he would question Warsaw on the man’s path since he was handed over.
Valensi said that the man had arrived back in France on Wednesday morning and was planning to head to England where his sister lived.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls called for light to be shed on the suspect’s history, saying the family and community were “deeply shocked” by the murder.
“It is up to the legal system now to carry out the investigation and what we owe to the family is the whole truth,” he said.
The French city of Calais was plunged into mourning after the killing of the girl described as “cheerful and full of life”.
Residents planned a solemn march in memory of Chloe later Thursday.
“It’s horrific,” a shocked mother of two told AFP outside Chloe’s school on Thursday morning, where a counselling unit has been set up.
“My son knew her, he didn’t sleep last night, he knows he will never see her again. I can’t even imagine what the parents are going through,” she said.
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Great scheme, but I think a more accurate headline would read, “Irish 18-year-olds can avail of 189 new free interrail tickets”.
@bopter:
Yes, if Ireland could avail of 20k, that could be a possible 2m within EU; rail network would fairly clog up, even if off peak.
Is India un the EU?
Could you not of used a picture of the thousands of trains that run on the EU network?
@Niall Farrell: *have
@Niall Farrell: that’s Connolly there, Dublin’s getting very diverse
@Niall Farrell: .. 20k and that picture. Sloppy!
@bill2345: nice one
@Niall Farrell: Sri Lanka actually.
https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/colombo-sri-lanka-april-3-2018-1364454683?src=cMqTBZYoSSz8_ZSjDmPRWw-2-2
When are they doing it for 44 year old?
@Colm Lyons: guess who’s paying for it
@Tony Humphreys: The whole of EU is paying it? 20,000 train tickets costs nothing in the grand scheme of things.
These kids will still have to pay for accommodation, food entertainment, etc. along with the VAT in each country they visit anyway, which should recuperate the costs of the tickets. It’s not a completely free holiday they’re getting!
And nothing for us in our late 60s who kept Irish rail in business over the years and now have all the time in the world to travel to other European destinations are we older folk not Irish Europeans
@liam ward60: ye people get free bus passes
@liam ward60: It’s 189 made available to Ireland. You get free travel pass, think of all the lovely places around Ireland you can visit for free
@deise: Ignoramus
@liam ward60: Irish Rail isn’t financing these trips, it’s an EU initiative and a form of cheap advertising as the winners are expected to become ‘EU ambassadors’, posting frequently to social
Media. Nothing for people in their late 60s? Residents over 65 have free bus, Luas and rail travel plus additional free travel on cross-border services. Many countries across Europe have special fares for senior citizens. I’m in my 60s and certainly don’t begrudge a couple of hundred young people getting free tickets every year.
https://www.tripsavvy.com/senior-train-travel-discounts-in-europe-2972914
@liam ward60: You were moaning about being broke last week! Now you want to go on an EU holiday?
Is India in the EU?
Could you not of used a picture of the thousands of trains that run on the EU network?
@Niall Farrell: They would be in breach of GDPR if they use a file picture from Europe… All file pictures that media outlets now use are from outside the EU and thus avoiding GDPR rule and regulations.
@Humphrey Harold Haddington:
“All file pictures that media outlets now use are from outside the EU”
I don’t believe you.
@Humphrey Harold Haddington: that’s definitely not true
@Humphrey Harold Haddington: If that were the case can you explain all of the other photos of groups on the journal?
Or maybe they just used a stock photo without thinking to hard.
Occams razor.
I think that this is a fantastic scheme. I would have jumped at it when I was 18.
Wasted on 18 yr olds, they’ll spend more time looking at their phones than having a look around their destinations!
and an Indian railway station in the picture :D
Kids!! Take your mind away from the USC and have a train ticket.
@Ned Flanders: What is wrong with USC?
Does it include Indian trains now as well….
189 but each person awarded a pass can bring 4 of their 18 year old friends with them!
Fabulous. This is money well spent. It should be run every year. Great idea.
I imagine it’s pretty cheap to pay for as the trains run anyway and it’s 20k people outta 500million. Personally I’d like to see it means assessed as a lotta richer kids do it anyway as a right of passage. Saying that an inter-rail ticket for 7days travel in a thirty day period is €250. Not that difficult for a motivated teen to earn and save. Plenty of work about. 8000 vacancies in the hospitality sector, landscape gardeners have great difficulty finding staff…..
@Learned Chew: yeah let’s make it complicated and expensive to administer so they just don’t bother doing schemes like this.
Means testing a train ticket ffs.
Wow free passes for 18 year olds? Brilliant
149??? Bullsh!t
If they offer 20,000,000 tickets to UK they might stay in the EU.
*189*
have your say