MURDERED schoolgirl Lola Daviet‘s weeping mum said justice had been served after her 12-year-old daughter’s depraved killer was jailed for life.
It comes after Algerian woman Dahbia Benkired, 27, was told she would never be released from her cell for torturing and raping the young child.
Lola’s devastated mum Delphine said after the conviction: “We believed in justice and we got it.”
Meanwhile the victim’s emotional brother thanked the justice system and said: “We got what we wanted.”
A lawyer for Lola’s family also said: “It’s a fair decision. We have restored the memory, the truth of this young girl.
“Justice will allow us to move forward. The sentence is commensurate with the immensity of the harm committed.”
The historic verdict means Dahbia Benkired becomes the first woman in French criminal history to be sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Men currently serving the same tariff include Salah Abdeslam, the Belgian terrorist who was part of the 10-man ISIS gang that murdered 130 people in one night in Paris in November 2015.
Dahbia was emotionless as the verdict was read out, while Delphine Daviet and Thibault Daviet – Lola’s mother and brother – hugged each other, and were in floods of tears.
The tragic girl’s defiled corpse was found in the lobby of the building where she lived in the French capital in 2022.
Benkired had confessed to the killing but, in line with French law, went on trial at the Paris Assizes.
Today she told the court: “I ask for forgiveness. What I did was horrible. That’s all I have to say”.
This was just before a jury convicted her conclusively of all three charges of “murder, rape and torture” following almost three hours of deliberations.
Lola was found to have suffered almost 40 wounds – including a partially severed head and neck slashed with scissors – alongside sexual abuse.
The horrific saga has become a hugely political one, because of the way it highlights weak immigration policies.
Demonstrators gathered outside the court building today, calling for the death penalty to be reinstated to deal with Benkired.
She should not even have been in France, after overstaying a student visa, yet was left free to prey on Lola “for pleasure and the satisfaction of sexual urges,” said the Attorney General.
The prosecuting official – who is not named according to French legal convention – said Benkired should spend the rest of her days behind bars, without any chance of parole.
Addressing the jury, the Attorney General said: “Today you have to judge three crimes marked by particular cruelty which are all punishable by life imprisonment.
“They are crimes which plunged a family into unspeakable suffering.
“Dahbia Benkired is extremely dangerous, and there is a maximum risk of her reoffending.”
The Attorney General called for a life sentence that aims “to protect society from a woman whose extreme danger I am firmly convinced of.”
A so-called “irreducible life sentence” – which is what Benkired was given – is the harshest penalty possible under the French Penal Code, and often criticised by human rights bodies.
Lola’s mother, Delphine Daviet, 47, was in floods of tears as she faced Benkired in court on Wednesday.
“Before this tragedy, we had a very simple family life, very attentive to one another,” said Ms Daviet.
Everything changed on October 14, 2022, when Lola was abducted from the apartment block where she lived with her parents, and brother.
Recalling their last moments together, Ms Daviet said: “I kissed her, I said ‘See you later’. Then she encountered this thing – this devil monster.
“I feel guilty, I couldn’t save my Lola. My husband and my son also blame themselves a lot.”
Benkired attacked Lola sexually, slashed her throat with scissors and a box cutter, and then taped her face with duct tape, which led to her death because she was unable to breathe.
“Who could have imagined what would happen when Lola encountered this thing, this monster?” said Ms Daviet.
“Why us, why Lola? My mother’s heart is forever broken.”
Ms Daviet’s husband, 49-year-old Johan Daviet, died in February last year, due to heavy drinking related to the family tragedy.
The couple had worked as caretakers in the building from which Lola was abducted by homeless Benkired.
Ms Daviet said: “I tell myself I’m lucky to have my son, Thibault, by my side, otherwise I might not be here anymore.
“I remind you that I lost my Lola, my husband, my job, my home. My whole life has collapsed. I sometimes wonder how I’m still standing.’
Benkired, who was arrested son after Lola’s corpse was found in a trunk, looked on impassively at such testaments against her continued.
She was examined by psychiatrists and judged able to stand trial.
Éric Pauget, of France’s Republican party, said in parliament that Lola had been killed as a result of France’s “weak immigration policies”.
Benkired has been held on remand in Fresnes high security prison, south of Paris, for the last three years.
She previously claimed she was “bewitched” by her former boyfriend, identified as Fatah A.
Benkired was led down to start her full sentence immediately after her six-day trial.
