Teen admits stabbing girlfriend to death in France

• A 14-year-old admits stabbing his similarly aged girlfriend to death in France.
• A source with the case says investigators believe the couple recently split up.
• Police initially said the girl was 13 but later revised her age to 14.

A 14-year-old admitted to stabbing his similarly aged girlfriend to death in eastern France, Prosecutors said Thursday.

Police said the body was discovered early Thursday near her former primary school in a village north of Lyon.

According to an AFP source familiar with the case, investigators believe the couple recently split up.

The girl went missing late Wednesday and police were deployed around Clesse, a wine-growing village of 800 inhabitants.

“(The suspect’s) first statements confirm that he committed murder,” local prosecutor Eric Jallet told a press conference.

He admitted to stabbing the girl several times, including in the neck, when they met in the night, Jallet added, without giving the motive.

The teenager’s friends “said the suspect had in the past made worrying statements, talking about wanting to kill someone, in particular his girlfriend,” Jallet said.

Read more: Champions League chaos caused ‘severe damage’ to France’s image

He said the friends had not taken him seriously although they had been worried about the boy.

Regional schools chief Pierre N’Gahane said the girl was a pupil at a middle school in Lugny, a town near Clesse.

“What’s happened is totally incomprehensible,” he told broadcaster BFM television.

There had been “no reports of bullying” at the girl’s school, he added, describing her as a good student.

N’Gahane was unable to confirm that the girl and the suspect had recently split but said it was “possible”.

The primary school in Clesse — near where the girl’s body was found — was closed with a bouquet of white and pink roses attached to a barrier outside.

Bloodstains were visible on the ground outside.

“This is a horrible day,” Clesse mayor Jean-Pierre Chevrier said, adding that the girl’s family was “well liked” and that the family’s only child had been “very kind, just like her parents”.

Police initially said the girl was 13 but later revised her age to 14.

Read more:  France’s Macron holds calls with Jordan’s king, Palestinian president