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Father accused of murdering his wife and four children claims he ‘heard voices’
The man had been held in 2019 after stabbing his partner in the shoulder blade when she was pregnant with their third child and then trying to kill himself. She had refused to press charges.
The public prosecutor said on Thursday that a 33-year-old French father admitted killing his wife and four children because he “heard voices” urging him to “cause harm.”
On Tuesday, French police detained a man with a history of psychological illness on suspicion of murdering his Haitian-born wife and their four, seven, and ten-year-old children.
Their bodies had been found on Monday, Christmas Day, at home in the town of Meaux east of Paris.
The man, a plumber, has been receiving treatment since 2017 for depression and psychotic behaviour, the prosecutors have said.
Meaux public prosecutor Jean-Baptiste Bladier, citing the results of Wednesday’s autopsy, said the children’s 35-year-old mother and her 10- and seven-year-old daughters had received “around 10 stab wounds each” which had been “administered with great violence”.
The four-year-old and nine-month-old boys “died of asphyxia following drowning”, he added.
The suspect said that he had “not been able to identify a trigger for his act”, said the prosecutor. He has “felt nothing” and “felt empty” after murdering his family, the prosecutor added.
According to Bladier, the suspect “indicated that he had been taking his daily medication” since 2019, but had not taken it on December 24.
Prosecutors did not release the exact date of the murder.
Police discovered the bodies at around 9:00 pm on Monday.
Neighbours told police they had heard cries downstairs during the night of December 24 to 25.
The man had been held in 2019 after stabbing his partner in the shoulder blade when she was pregnant with their third child and then trying to kill himself. She had refused to press charges.
