The teenager suspected of the murder of little Rose, 5 years old, in 2023, is tried by the Epinal children’s court starting this Tuesday.
He admitted to holding the child’s head in the bathtub, but denies any sexual assault.
The case of the murder of little Rose before the courts. The teenager suspected of the murder of the 5-year-old girl last year in Rambervillers (Vosges), is tried behind closed doors by the Epinal children’s court, Tuesday June 11 and Wednesday June 12, three months after a first conviction for rape and sexual assault in another case.
On April 25, 2023, less than an hour after her parents reported the girl’s disappearance, her body was discovered naked in a trash bag, in an apartment in this town of 5,000 inhabitants. The teenager, aged 15 at the time of the events, admitted to having brought little Rose to his home, claiming that he was going to show her a kitten. He admitted, during a reconstruction two months after the events, to having kept the child’s head underwater in the bathtub.
Already convicted of rape and sexual assault of two minors
Traces of semen were also found on Rose’s clothes, although the teenager has claimed since the beginning of the investigation that “nothing sexual” had happened that April day with the child. In an autopsy report, experts noted “the absence of vulvo-vaginal traumatic traces and the anal margin”while considering that “this does not eliminate touching”. Another expert report then noted that the girl’s genetic profile had been found “in a very small way at the level of the testicles and the penis of the accused” but also on his pants and underwear, according to a Source close to the case.
Last March, in a previous case, the teenager was already sentenced by the Epinal children’s court, for rape and sexual assault on two minors, to three years in prison, one of which was suspended. The events, which occurred in February 2022, predated Rose’s death. Placed in a closed educational center outside the department for a year after these events, the teenager then returned to live with his mother in Rambervillers.
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The teenager is also the subject of another complaint for acts of rape and sexual assault committed in February 2022. A preliminary investigation is still underway on this subject, the Epinal public prosecutor, Frédéric, told AFP. Nahon.
