Christmas massacre in France. A man stabbed to death his 35-year-old partner and their 4 children, aged between 9 months and 10 years, in their apartment in Meaux, in the Seine-et-Marne region, east of Paris.
The 33-year-old man wanted since last night was arrested this morning in Sevran, a suburb of the French capital, according to police reports.
The murderer was already known to the police for family violence and serious psychiatric disorders, investigation sources said. The bodies were discovered yesterday evening, Christmas Day, around 9pm, after the alarm was raised by some neighbors who had not received a response after knocking on the door of the woman who lived with her children, according to what was reported by the Public Prosecutor of Meaux, Jean-Baptiste Bladier.
"The apartment - added the prosecutor - showed no signs of forced entry but the children's father was absent."
In France there have recently been real family massacres, in particular 2 triple infanticides committed by fathers in the Paris region. At the end of November, a 41-year-old man, also a repeat offender of family violence, confessed to the killing of his three daughters between the ages of 4 and 11 in Alfortville, also east of Paris. He had spoken of constant arguments with his ex-partner on the topic of child custody.
In October, a gendarme killed his three daughters and then committed suicide in his home in Vémars, in the Val d'Oise, north of Paris. Even in that case, "a difficult family context" had emerged.
In France there is a femicide every 3 days, with 118 women killed last year by their partner or ex-partner.
(Unioneonline/L)