Shocking torture Lola Daviet endured 'at the hands of Algerian woman who raped and murdered her' is described by expert as court sees video of 'her killer dragging trunk containing corpse into a bar'
By ADAM POGRUND, TRAINEE REPORTER
Published: 06:43 EDT, 20 October 2025 | Updated: 07:14 EDT, 20 October 2025
The horrifying torture a 12-year-old French girl is said to have endured at the hands of an Algerian migrant who allegedly raped and murdered her has been revealed in court.
Lola Daviet was allegedly raped and tortured after being lured into an apartment in Paris by Dahbia Benkired, 27, an Algerian woman who was under an expulsion order to leave France.
She is accused of partially severing Lola's head and suffocating her as revenge for the girl's caretaker mother refusing to give the migrant a key to an apartment block.
Benkired then allegedly dragged the girl's body in a suitcase around the French capital.
Shocking CCTV footage has emerged showing the migrant allegedly opening a suitcase containing the corpse of the child while sitting at a busy Paris bar hours after the murder.
The schoolgirl, who was seen being taken into the apartment by the homeless and unemployed Algerian, suffered 38 wounds on her back and neck before dying from asphyxia, a doctor told the Assize Court in Paris on Monday.
'There is physical, psychological and moral suffering', the doctor added, as images of her injuries were shown to the court on day two of Benkired's trial.
'Asphyxia is very anxiety-provoking, it goes beyond physical pain. There were probably one or more impacts to the head, which creates physical pain.'
Several family members left the court as images of Lola's injuries were shown while other shocking details came to light, including that the 12-year-old sustained 'visible traumatic injuries' on her genitals.
The horrifying torture Lola Daviet, 12, is said to have endured at the hands of an Algerian migrant who allegedly raped and murdered her has been revealed at court
Shocking CCTV footage shows the moment Dahbia Benkired allegedly opened the suitcase she had allegeldy stuffed Lola into while sitting in a busy Paris bar
Video footage shown to the court appears to show the migrant relaxing at a bar on Rue Manin just hours after allegedly carrying out the sickening murder on October 14, 2022
'There was hemorrhagic trauma to various parts of the body,' particularly to the child's private parts, the doctor said.
The child also had a 'large wound' on her face, a severed neck and a slashed back, likely caused by knives, while her 'head was partially severed'.
The girl, who was allegedly forced to perform a sex act on Benkired 'for her pleasure', suffered injuries which were consistent with 'gripping of the neck, either to grasp it or because pressure was exerted on it'.
Adhesive tape was blocking the nose and mouth of the girl, who was slashed with scissors and a box cutter before being bound up in duct tape and stuffed into a suitcase.
After allegedly killing her, Benkired dragged her body around Paris in the plastic trunk, before dumping it on the street where it was found by a homeless man.
CCTV, seen by the court, showed the moment Benkired allegedly opened a suitcase containing the girl's body while at a bar on Rue Manin just hours after the killing on October 14, 2022.
She arrived at the restaurant with two standard-sized suitcases and one much larger bag.
Footage shows her chatting to a man while the large trunk - which prosecutors allege contained Lola's body - lay on the tiled floor beside her.
She chatted with a man while a large trunk, allegedly carrying Lola's body, lay on the tiled floor. Benkired then pointed to the suitcase, opened it a crack, and seemed to urge him to look at its contents
Lola is pictured in this CCTV footage still wearing a white coat and carrying what appears to be her schoolbag
CCTV footage showed the Algerian woman allegedly luring Lola to her tragic death
At one point, Benkired appeared to point to the suitcase, opening it slightly as if to show its contents.
The man briefly touched the lid and looked inside before standing up. It is not clear if he realised what the case was carrying.
Benkired settled in France in 2013, aged 14, but was subject to an expulsion order after overstaying a student visa in August 2022, just two months before Lola was murdered.
Lola was seen entering the apartment building with her at around 3pm before being taken into an apartment, and it is alleged she was forced to undress and wash herself, before being raped.
Benkired left the building at 5pm with the young girl's body in the trunk, which was found at 11pm, the court was told.
Horrific images of Lola's naked body squashed into the suitcase were shown to the court on Friday, prompting her family to walk out.
The shocking photographs showed her arms bound together and her face completely covered in tape.
Building residents saw Benkired in the lobby of the apartment block in the 19th district, carrying suitcases and a heavy trunk covered in a blanket, the investigation showed.
Dahbia Benkired (pictured) is accused of raping, torturing and murdering the 12-year-old girl in 2022
An hour and a half earlier, security footage showed Benkired approaching the girl as she returned from school, then leading her into the flat her sister occupied in the building.
She placed the body in a trunk and exited the building, pausing outside a cafe, where she told a client who suspected something strange in her luggage that she was 'selling a kidney', investigators said.
She is then said to have convinced a friend to drive her and the bags to his home, before taking a taxi with the trunk back to the building where her sister lived.
She fled when she saw police deployed in the area, but was arrested the next day.
A police investigation revealed that a pair of scissors, an oyster knife and an IKEA knife were found in Benkired's flat with traces of blood.
Speaking in court on Friday, Lola's mother Delphine Daviet, who was wearing a white T-shirt with a picture of her daughter, demanded 'justice'.
The girl's family sat in court wearing matching t-shirts with the words: 'You were the sun of our life, you will be the star of our nights.'
The Algerian alleged killer had a tough upbringing with aunts before she settled in France in 2013, the investigation showed.
Benkired settled in France in 2013, aged 14, but was subject to an expulsion order after overstaying a student visa
She told the court that she had been abused by family and neighbours as she grew up, claiming her aunts 'forced her to watch pornographic films... and groped her in the forest.'
It was reported at the time of the killing that she was was the subject of an expulsion order, prompting stinging criticism from the right and one of the most bitter political debates in recent memory.
Asked why she didn't want to return to Algeria, Benkired said: 'I feel free in France. In Algeria, we have no life. There was no reason. I studied here, I grew up here, I have my whole family here. What am I going to do there?'
She claimed to have suffered something of a mental breakdown following her parents' deaths in 2019 and 2020. She said she would smoke up to '20 [cannabis] joints a day' to deal with this 'tipping point'.
She had overstayed a student visa and had failed to comply with a notice issued in August to leave France within 30 days.
She told investigators she had been angry with the girl's mother, who had refused to give her a badge to get through the apartment block's front door, after her sister had given her a key to her flat.
The probe showed she had conducted searches online into witchcraft days before the murder.
Benkired, whose trial is to last until Friday, faces a maximum sentence of life in jail.
When asked by the judge what they expected from the trial, Lola's family said they wanted justice and for the truth to be revealed.
Delphine Daviet, mother of Lola, accompanied by relatives, arrives at the Paris Assize Court for the trial of Dahbia Benkired, accused of raping, torturing, and killing Lola Daviet, a 12-year-old girl, in 2022, on October 17, 2025
Lola's parents Delphine and Johan (pictured) were professional caretakers of a number of buildings in northern Paris, including the one where they lived
Lola's brother Thibault Daviet said, referencing his late father: 'I would like to speak on behalf of the whole family... and of course my father, who is unfortunately no longer here because of the same person.
'We would like you to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, to all of France and to us'.
Benkired, speaking to the girl's mourning family, today said in court: 'I would like to ask the whole family for forgiveness. What I did was horrible and I regret it'.
Conservative and far-right politicians seized on the case to call for better immigration law enforcement, after Benkired was found to have overstayed a student visa and failed to comply with a notice to leave France.
But the victim's mother urged politicians to stop exploiting her daughter's death. |
