French Court Jails Nanny for Poisoning Employers, Rejects Antisemitism Charge

A court in Nanterre, outside Paris, handed down a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence on Thursday to a 42-year-old Algerian woman who worked as a nanny and was convicted of poisoning the parents of Jewish children in her care, according to AFP. Alongside the custodial sentence, judges ordered her barred from entering France for five years.

The panel also convicted the woman of possessing and using a forged Belgian identity card, a separate offense uncovered during the investigation.

Judges described the crimes as a grave violation of the family’s confidence, with the presiding judge calling the conduct a “major betrayal of trust” against the parents of children who were then aged 2, 5, and 7.

Despite disturbing elements raised during the probe, the court declined to classify the case as aggravated by antisemitism. The judges said that statements attributed to the defendant emerged later in the investigation and were not made in the presence of her lawyer, preventing them from being used to support that charge.

The case stemmed from events in 2024, when the parents began noticing unusual and alarming signs inside their home. In January, they contacted authorities after discovering that a bottle of grape juice reeked of bleach and that the mother experienced severe eye pain after using her makeup remover.

Investigators determined that several household items had been deliberately tainted. During questioning, the nanny acknowledged that she had poured cleaning substances into bottles of alcohol owned by her employers. At that time, she told police she “never should have worked for a Jewish woman.”

At trial, however, the defendant reversed course. She told the court that the incriminating statement was fabricated under pressure during interrogation and insisted that her actions were not motivated by antisemitism.

{Matzav.com}