Genevieve Lhermitte first attempted suicide after slitting her children’s throats in 2007, but failed.
Convicted child killer Genevieve Lhermitte died on Tuesday after the Belgian government granted her euthanasia request, her former lawyer, Nicholas Cohen, told AFP. She was murdered exactly 16 years after taking the lives of her five children in the family home in Nivelles.
On February 28, 2007, Lhermitte cut the throats of her three-year-old son Mehdi and her four daughters, Mina (7), Myriam (10), Nora (12) and Yasmine (14), while their father , Bouchaib Moqadem , was visiting family in Morocco. He used a kitchen knife he had stolen from the supermarket that day, and later told the court how he had tricked his eldest daughter Yasmine into blindfolding herself before striking the unconscious girl and slitting her throat, then of having feared the 14-year-old. he was too strong for her. Lhermitte tried to kill himself by stabbing himself, but was unable to do so and eventually called 911.
Lhermitte testified that she had felt “desperate and trapped” stuck at home with her children while Moqadem was away, and that a doctor who lived with the couple was acting as a wife and mother, accompanying the married couple to their honeymoon and even. sleep in his room to avoid intimacy.
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While her lawyers argued during the trial that Lhermitte was mentally disturbed and unfit for prison, citing her regular visits to a psychiatrist, among other things, Lhermitte was quickly convicted of the murders and sentenced to life in prison in 2008. He unsuccessfully tried to sue his former psychiatrist in 2010 for “inaction” to prevent the murders, but gave up after ten years.
She was transferred from prison to a psychiatric hospital in 2019 and reportedly attempted suicide again in 2021.
Although psychologist Emilie Maroit acknowledged that Lhermitte’s latest successful suicide attempt may have simply been an effort to finish what she started 16 years ago, she told local Belgian broadcaster RTL-TVI that, in change, it was “a symbolic gesture of respect for his children”. ” He had long expressed remorse for the killings.
In 2002, Belgium became the second country to legalize euthanasia, allowing it as long as a client can be said to be suffering “excruciating” psychological and/or physical torment. Clients must be aware of their decision to die and be able to express that wish in a “reasoned and coherent manner”, according to AFP – qualifications Lhermitte’s lawyer insisted she met.
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