A harrowing video has been released which shows an 89-year-old French woman being attacked by three teenage males in the city of Cannes, who then robbed her of €10, with the case prompting widespread outrage in a country beset by rising crime rates.
“An 89-year-old woman was assaulted by three 14-year-old minors in Cannes on Monday. Already known to the police, they first denied the crime and then expressed no regret. The victim suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and facial fractures. The amount stolen? About 10 euros,” wrote Amaury Brelet, who serves as an editor at French newspaper Valeurs Actuelles.
The mayor of Cannes, David Lisnard, has written to French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin requesting the suspension of social assistance to the families of the boys who attacked an 89-year-old lady in the city earlier this week.
The three perpetrators of the violent robbery committed on the pensioner on Monday afternoon in Cannes-La-Bocca were referred to the Grasse prosecutor’s office on Thursday afternoon. They will be summoned to juvenile court on Nov. 30.
Pending their appearance, a judge decided on Thursday, as part of their judicial review, to place the trio in closed educational centers in Marseille, Saint-Etienne, and Bordeaux.
The perpetrator, aged 14, who struck the elderly lady, was taken to the police station by his family on Aug. 30.
The bag thief, 15, and the creator of the phone video, 14, were in turn arrested on Aug. 31. The first two are being prosecuted for aggravated theft and violence towards a vulnerable person, and the third for being complicit in the crime.
In a follow-up tweet, Mayor Lisnard wrote that if his mother would have been the victim, knowing the identity of the perpetrators, he would have done justice himself:
“I add, (…) that if it was my mother who had been attacked in this way, knowing the identity of the pathetic authors of this act, it might be me who would be in jail today,“ Lisnard wrote.
