An 18-year-old girl who recorded a man dying in a metro station in Rennes, France, has been sentenced to 15 months of probation, media reports say. The sentence was also heard by the convict’s boyfriend and his sister, who shared the video on social media. However, “Le Monde” draws attention to the “complexity of the case”.
The 18-year-old recorded a 10-second video of a man in a pool of blood on the steps of a Rennes subway station shortly after he was attacked with a machete at 11:16 p.m. on May 29. He lost a lot of blood and died on the spot. The woman did not help the injured man, instead she sent the video to her mother and 20-year-old boyfriend. He, in turn – as investigators later established – sent the video to his 22-year-old sister, who shared it on social media.
The 18-year-old was charged with complicity in a crime, failing to help a person in danger and violating human dignity. The boy and his sister have been accused of posting the video on social media, France Info reported. For failing to provide assistance on Wednesday, the court in Rennes sentenced the 18-year-old to 15 months’ suspended prison and her boyfriend and his sister to six months’ suspended prison. Judge Agnès Al-Takarli said that with this sentence, she “wants to give a chance” to the convicts, “to let them understand their behavior”.
Prosecutor accuses defendants of ‘lack of humanity’
Tatiana Abachkina, the lawyer of the mother of the murdered man, quoted by Le Monde, said that the video circulating on the network “destroyed the funeral” of her client’s son. – Everyone present spoke about the frames showing the agony of a man filmed like a circus animal, who was not given any help – she said during the trial. Prosecutor Alice Barbe agreed with her, accusing the defendants of “lack of humanity”.
The 18-year-old’s lawyer stated that his client “cannot be used as a scapegoat for those who murdered the victim and were not arrested, or as a scapegoat for the social phenomenon of the use of mobile phones and video, especially by young people.” When the judge at Wednesday’s hearing asked the teen why she had videotaped the dying man, she said she “went panicked”. – I was afraid that the attackers were still around. I was in shock. Sorry. I won’t do it again, she said.
“The complexity of the case”
Le Monde on Thursday pointed to a video from a surveillance camera in a subway station that “shows the complexity of the case.” According to the report of the French daily, it shows the surprise of the 18-year-old at the sight of blood stains on the stairs. It was then that she had to “involuntarily” pick up the phone. She turned off the recording moments after noticing the injured man, then alerted others who called emergency services. The homeless man then used his T-shirt to stop the bleeding and tried to perform a heart massage.
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