On the night of April 23, three young boys entered the Hélène-Boucher school complex in Thionville. They stole equipment during their “exploration”. Two of them were former students. The defendants, aged 18 and 19, appeared before the criminal court on Tuesday for aggravated theft.
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Today at 06:00
They don’t really have the profile of the crime. The three defendants, aged 18 and 19, are top of the class. Discreet, polite, uncomfortable, they advance to the bar of the criminal court. Their parents are in the room. The trio is being prosecuted for aggravated theft committed at the Hélène-Boucher high school in Thionville on April 23. They were arrested by the police on their way out, in the middle of the night. They were equipped with gloves, balaclava, cap, surgical mask, headlamp, hammer, saw. One of them was carrying a lock picking kit. But they didn’t use it to break into the school.
Two of the three defendants are former students. The first tells that he had a service key, “found” during his schooling. He kept it. “I thought it might be useful,” he says. He admits that his goal was to steal physics chemistry equipment. They also took a screen, computer cables, chargers. The night visit was clearly planned. “We talked about it on social networks”, confirms the only defendant who had never set foot in this high school. “But for me, it wasn’t to steal,” he promises. Exploration would have been his sole motivation.
“Feeling of betrayal”
The surveillance cameras immortalized their passage. Once inside, they targeted the manager’s office to grab keys that opened the rest of the school to them. Except the principal’s office. They didn’t force his way in. “We resigned ourselves,” confess the science and computer science students.
“It’s shameful”, indignantly the manager of the establishment at the hearing. He speaks of the “feeling of betrayal” shared by the educational team. He recalls that a first intrusion took place the previous year by these former students. The case had been closed but the locks of the school had been changed for an amount of 11,700 euros. The school complex is now claiming reimbursement of this sum as well as an additional 30,000 euros to secure its entrances by a badge system in particular. “It’s not money falling from the sky, it’s public money! »
Work of general interest
The public prosecutor is demanding the same sentence for the three defendants: eight months in prison with a probationary suspension for two years. Over this period, they will have to perform community service for 70 hours, justify a citizenship course, compensate the victim. “The sentence must certainly be dissuasive but it must also be educational, adapted to the personalities of the defendants”, answers Me Dangin, in defense. According to him, the strengthening of access to high school is not justified. “No more keys lying around in nature”, he slips. Like his colleague, Me Tiberi pleads community service as the main sentence. And the non-registration of the conviction in the criminal records so as not to slow down the path of young students.
The court will deliver its decision on June 27.
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