The Bouches-du-Rhône Assize Court sentenced a young man to 25 years in prison on Thursday for murdering a man in his seventies with whom he had prostituted himself a few days earlier. The defendant's younger brother, who was 14 years old at the time of the crime, had already been sentenced last May to 15 years' imprisonment.

The Bouches-du-Rhône Assize Court on Thursday sentenced a young man to 25 years in prison for the murder of a homosexual man in his seventies whom he suspected of pedophilia.

The Bouches-du-Rhône Assize Court on Thursday sentenced a young man to 25 years in prison for the murder of a homosexual man in his seventies whom he suspected of pedophilia.

The public prosecutor had requested a thirty-year prison sentence, citing "a risk of recidivism".

The jurors also imposed a socio-judicial monitoring measure for five years after his release, as the dangerousness of the young accused dominated the debates.

"He claims responsibility for his actions."

On August 10, 2023, accompanied by his brother, then aged 14, he went to the Marseille home of the victim, with whom he had prostituted himself three days earlier via the Coco website.

No sooner had they arrived than the two brothers struck him repeatedly with a knife, going so far as to slit the septuagenarian's throat in his bathtub, a near decapitation, noted a forensic doctor.

The youngest had been sentenced for these acts, in May 2025, to fifteen years imprisonment by the special chamber for minors of the court of appeal of Aix-en-Provence, automatically benefiting from the excuse of minority.

"He claims responsibility for his actions," noted the public prosecutor, "presents himself as a kind of vigilante against the decadence of society and decides on the right of life and death over a man he suspects of pedophilia, but justice is served in the courts."

"A lack of empathy"

During the investigation, the accused made numerous disturbing statements, mentioning his "desire to see what it felt like to take a life," while his teachers had already raised concerns about his obsession with drawing weapons and even scenes of decapitation. Although the brothers stole the victim's phone, apartment keys, and money, the prosecution immediately ruled out any robbery motive.

The convicted man's family environment, the passion for weapons that his father shared with him since childhood, the virile education given to the two brothers, a homosexuality impossible to reveal and the aversion to pedophilia in the family culture were debated throughout the trial.

According to a psychiatric expert, the young defendant suffers from an "autism spectrum disorder characterized by isolation, a lack of empathy and difficulty in understanding the feelings of others".

His lawyers, Rami Chahine and Denis Fayolle, expressed their satisfaction with the verdict. "The jurors grasped the full complexity of this tragedy," said Mr. Fayolle. "They went beyond the horror of the crime to understand the exceptional circumstances that drove an 18-year-old, with no prior convictions, to such horror."