France alarmed by ‘despicable’ death of teen bullied online

PARIS: The French government on Wednesday expressed alarm over the “despicable” death of a 14-year-old girl whose beaten body was found in the Seine river after she endured online harassment at school.

Police have detained two 15-year-olds, a boy and a girl, who attended the same school as the victim in Argenteuil on the outskirts of Paris, after her death late on Monday.

The killing has raised new concerns about juvenile crime in France after a spate of violence blamed on fighting between youth gangs.

Pupils interviewed outside the school in Argenteuil said the dispute started when photos of the victim “in underwear” circulated on the popular messaging service Snapchat.

“What happened to this young girl is utterly terrible and despicable,” government spokesman Gabriel Attal told reporters after a cabinet meeting chaired by President Emmanuel Macron.

“She was taken away by harassment, taken away by a vicious circle that contributed to this drama,” he added, vowing that those responsible would be punished.

Attal said: “We know that harassment begins at school, it starts in the classroom and the playground. But what is new in recent years is that it continues online after class.” According to prosecutors, the mother of the detained boy told police her son admitted that he and his friend had hit a young girl and she fell into the Seine, which flows through Argenteuil after leaving Paris.

The school confirmed Wednesday that the two detained youths had already been the subject of a disciplinary procedure over their behaviour towards the victim, and had advised her mother to file a complaint with the police.

The pair had been banned from entering the school and had been summoned to appear before a disciplinary committee on Tuesday, the day after the victim was killed, the school said.

There was “tension between these three students after the victim’s phone was hacked and compromising photos were posted by her two classmates,” the Cognacq-Jay high school said.

Worries about youth violence were already growing after a 15-year-old boy of Ukrainian origin was severely beaten in Paris in January, with the attack caught on video and going viral.

“We cannot accept a trivialisation of violence,” said Attal, adding that there needed to be a “penal response for minors that was quicker and more effective”.

Last week, Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti chaired a meeting of justice and security officials to deal with the problem of teenage gangs, especially in the Paris region.