En direct / Meurtre de Maëlys. Procès de Nordahl Lelandais : en interpellant l'accusé, la sœur de Maëlys bouleverse l'audience
Dauphiné, Live blog, Monday February 7, afternoon
14:40: The hearing resumes.
14:41: A portrait and a photo of Maëlys have been placed on the stand by the civil parties.
14:42: Maëlys' mother, Jennifer Cleyet-Marrel, takes the stand.
14:46: "I wrote a letter for Maëlys. You were my ray of sunshine and that evening in August 2017, everything became dark. How can I live without you? You, an innocent, dynamic young girl, generous with others, loving animals. I will never know your first lover, you had many things to accomplish, many dreams to fulfil. I am proud to have given birth to you and to have been your mother. Your sister Coleen is helping me through my grief."
14:48: "We were a loving family. I couldn't protect you from the bad guys and I feel guilty. Because of your courage you put a dangerous criminal in jail.
14:50: "You, the accused, on the day you applied for release, I learned that a drop of my daughter's blood was found in your trunk. Imagine my disgust."
"You, the jurors of the trial court, I trust you completely. The decision you make is yours, I hope it will help me regain my faith in humanity."
14 H 52 :
President: "Can you tell us about the wedding party?"
Jennifer Cleyet-Marrel: "The four of us were happy to go to the wedding. We got our hair done, we got all dressed up. At dessert time, that was the last time I saw my daughter. Afterwards, we were outside and I heard my niece say, 'Come and dance, the music is so good'.
And when I came back, I saw that Maëlys was not there. We started looking for her. I looked for the man in the blue shirt because I had seen that she had talked about his dogs with him.
14:58: "I asked him if he had seen my daughter. He said 'no I haven't seen her' with a blasé tone. At 4 a.m., we called the police, we could feel that something serious was happening. It was like a film, but we told ourselves that it couldn't happen to us. We immediately thought of an abduction. And then the hours went by and we couldn't find her. We were in a state of shock, all I did was look at photos of my daughter.
On 8 February, the examining magistrate summoned us. And she told us that a drop of blood was found in his car. And on 14 February, the day of love, he confessed. It took a long time, from 9am to 6pm. And then the dogs found some bones.
He threw her away like a piece of trash in the wild, to be eaten by animals.
On the day of the funeral, I couldn't look, I put her favourite things in her coffin. I'm here to make sure no one forgets her and that this doesn't happen to anyone else later on."
15 H 04 :
President: "Could she have gone with a stranger?"
Jennifer Cleyet-Marrel: "She would never have gotten into her car in the middle of the night to go see some dogs. She would have said something to us or asked permission."
15 H 10 :
President: "Do you remember Maëlys' sandals? She was barefoot in the room?"
Maëlys' mother: "Yes, she was putting them back outside so she wouldn't hurt herself."
President: "The first interaction with the accused?"
Maëlys' mother: "She came to me to ask if she could go and see her boyfriend's dogs on his phone. He was at the wedding table, I saw his two dogs on his screen."
President: "Is it because there was this interaction that you are looking for the man in the blue shirt when Maëlys disappears?"
Maëlys' mother: "Yes, that's it."
President: "And then he comes back?"
Maëlys' mother: "Yes, and he didn't seem concerned."
President: "Life without Maëlys?"
Maëlys' mother: "It changed everything, the couple's life, I separated from her father. Afterwards with Colleen, she was angry with me for leaving home. The clan broke up, everything reminded us of Maëlys. We only have the memories, the good ones. He ruined everything. Everything collapses from one day to the next, while we were at a wedding. I wonder if we're not in a nightmare and that we'll wake up one day.
President: "Were you apprehensive about this trial?"
Maëlys' mother: "No, it doesn't scare me. I will be strong like my daughter, a little warrior."
15 H 19 :
Maître Rajon: "Not knowing the whole truth, imagining the worst, does that add to your suffering?"
Maëlys' mother: "Before he confessed, I had images of my daughter in my dreams. I would wake up crying. You imagine all sorts of scenarios. He was quickly taken into custody but he never said anything. Anyway, he's a coward, he can tell it and repeat it. "
Maître Rajon: "From 27 August 2017 to 14 February 2018, looking back, why was that the hardest period?"
Maëlys' mother: "It was not knowing. On 14 February, the knot came undone, like a heartbreak."
15 H 22 :
Maître Rajon: "The day we saw the CCTV?"
Maëlys' mother: "It was Maëlys, there was no doubt. She was in front and not fastened, against the window, it was strange. She never rode in front."
15 H 26 :
Maître Rajon: "You had the feeling that the case was over in the fall of 2017?"
Maëlys' mother: "Yes but he didn't say anything. And he left her body in the wilderness for a whole winter, that might have changed things in terms of the autopsy."
Maître Rajon: "This feeling of guilt that you have inside you."
Maëlys' mother: "I didn't look after her enough, I didn't protect her from the bad guys. I'm angry at myself for believing him when he told me he hadn't seen her."
Maître Rajon: "How is Colleen?"
Maëlys' mother: "She is strong too, she has a strong character. But she lost her sister and is now all alone. They were very close. Fortunately she is here, she helps me to remain dignified.
15 H 31 :
Mr Rajon: "This case has moved the whole of France. You have received a lot of support. The extreme media coverage of the case and its consequences?
Maëlys' mother: "The hardest thing was to learn in the newspapers before the justice system told us. A lot of things were thrown at my daughter's back to make money and to highlight the other."
15 H 34 :
Maître Rajon: "I remember your state of exhaustion."
Maëlys' mother: "The mobile phone was always next to me. I was trying to inform myself as best I could because justice was not telling us much."
15 H 39 :
Maître Rajon: "We had a press conference afterwards. What did you have in mind?"
Maëlys' mother: "I wanted him to speak out."
15 H 42 :
Maître Rajon: "When the court of assizes renders its decision, do you have any idea what your life will be like?"
Maëlys' mother: "I will only have the memory of Maëlys, she will always be in my heart. And he will be forgotten, he will be obliterated."
15 H 44 :
Jacques Dallest, the public prosecutor: "When Lelandais says he took her in his car?"
Maëlys' mother: "It's impossible that she got in voluntarily. I don't see why he doesn't want to say it, it won't change much."
The public prosecutor: "When he says he killed her involuntarily?"
Maëlys' mother: "That's a lie. If she was crying, why didn't he just bring her back. Everything is calculated and premeditated."
15 H 47 :
The public prosecutor: "When you see him after the disappearance, was he disturbed?"
Maëlys' mother: "No nothing, like he didn't care."
15 H 48 :
Maëlys' mother speaks directly to Nordahl Lelandais sitting in his box: "Look down, you only have this to do." She says this because he does not dare to look at Maëlys' portrait.
15:49: Photos of Maëlys are projected in the room at the request of her mother. They are holiday and family photos.
15 H 56 :
President: "Mr Lelandais, one question at this point. Your phone is not in aeroplane mode at 3:25. Maëlys' mother passes you when you come back, do you confirm?"
Lelandais: "Yes ma'am."
President: "You have just killed Maëlys and you say that you have not seen her, how do you manage? Do you give the impression that you did not see her?"
Lelandais: "I know what I have just done so I don't know what to answer."
15:58: Maëlys' father, Joachim De Araujo, is now on the stand. He sets up the portrait of Maëlys in front of him.
16:02: "My angel, my warrior of light, I remember saying one day that in case of an attack you should shout loudly and call for help. When Lelandais was arrested I thought about it again. The scratch marks on him, I tell myself that you listened to me and tried to defend yourself.
Not a day goes by that I don't remember that night. I am a father, like lost at sea, trying to get my head above water. Deprived of you my daughter, of your sister who is moving away from me. This separation from your mother...
This heartless, soulless Mr Lelandais that he is. Who has done you a lot of harm and who continues with his lies and his statements.
Maëlys, you remain engraved in my heart, forever. I miss and will always miss all those moments we spent together."
16 H 12 :
President: "About that wedding night, the exchanges with your little girl?"
Maëlys' father: "The last time I saw her, we were dancing to a song she liked, I was carrying her. And then I put her back down and she went to play with the other children... if I had known, I would have kept her with me."
President: "Life after?"
Maëlys' father: "Having a child is the most beautiful thing. What purpose do we have if we don't have a child? That my daughter was taken away from me like that? I don't understand. I still wonder why there are people like this.
President:"What do you expect from the trial?
Maëlys' father: "Nothing from him. I have a feeling of pity. For me it's dead in his head. There is nothing to be done with this character, he must be isolated from society.
16 H 15 :
Maëlys' father: "Why does he continue to lie given that he has already committed the worst? "
President: "Is there anything else you want to say?"
Maëlys' father: "No madam president".
16 H 16 :
Boguet, the lawyer of Maëlys' father: "You are not a great communicator but you have to find words to describe this field of ruins for 4 years. Everything has been pulverised on the occasion of this night?"
Maëlys' father: "Everything was shattered in a few seconds."
Maître Boguet : "In the close circle, the emptiness is there ?
Maëlys' father: "Yes, the relatives feel powerless.
Maître Boguet : "You couldn't stand your house anymore?
Maëlys' father: "Yes, when you see the photos, it becomes unbearable.
Maître Boguet: "Did the marriage explode?"
Maëlys' father: "We can't rebuild ourselves. Unconsciously, we tell ourselves that we have lost everything.
Boguet: "The court needs to hear it and so does the one in the box, you found yourself with all the strings of the puppet cut. Even professionally? (He is on disability today)"
Maëlys' father: "Everything fell apart."
Boguet: "There is the loss of a child and the conditions in which this disappearance occurred."
Maëlys' father: "Yes, that's it, I had made up a lot of scenarios, that we could still find her."
16 H 21 :
Maître Boguet: "You have followed the file. Four months before he killed your daughter, he killed Arthur Noyer and assaulted his little cousins. What does this inspire you?"
Maëlys' father: "I would not like to be in his head... I still have a soul."
16:23: A video of Maëlys dancing at the wedding is shown in the courtroom.
16:27: Colleen De Araujo, Maëlys' sister, takes the stand. She is 17 years old.
16:30: "I heard a lot about what it was like to be the brother or sister of Nordahl Lelandais. I'll tell you what it was like to be Maëlys' sister." The young girl reads a long text addressed to her sister.
16 H 35 :
To Nordahl Lelandais: "In fact it is you who is the trash. I do not believe in your lies, nor in your tears."
"Maître Jakubowicz with all due respect, the day my sister was found on 14 February, you should have kept quiet. I remember the day you said on TV that the silhouette in the CCTV photo was that of a mature woman, it was my sister's."
The girl asks Nordahl Lelandais if he raped her sister?
Lelandais: "No, I did not rape your sister."
16 H 44 :
Maëlys' sister: "We want the truth. At least tell the truth for my parents and even your family and your entourage. Tired of your lies. Have the courage and dignity to speak as I am doing right now!"
Lelandais: "I will answer later."
Maëlys' sister: "Stop with that! Answer now." (She looks him in the eye)
Lelandais: "The truth, I tried to explain it several times nobody believed me."
Maëlys' sister: "You change versions all the time, how can I believe you?"
Lelandais: "I hear all your pain."
The sister: "You put a rock on her body! Why hurt a child who just wanted to have fun?
The president intervenes: "Ms. De Araujo... we'll let Mr. Lelandais sit down again because he has no answer for you."
16:47: The hearing is suspended, it will resume at 17:00.
BBM