A 32-year-old Frenchman was sentenced to life in prison on Friday for the brutal rape and murder of an 80-year-old British woman in southwestern France.
Following the murder, Madi Mahaboudi, who has a previous conviction for a 2005 unlawful killing for which he was sentenced to eight years, cut up the body of Violet Price into seven pieces and discarded them in a field.
The criminal court in Agen heard from a medical examiner who said the attack last year on Price had been particularly violent.
鈥淚n 15 years of practice, I had never seen such a degree of bruising on the throat and neck,鈥� he said after having asked members of the victim鈥檚 family to leave the court before reading out the long list of physical and sexual injuries suffered by Price.
鈥淗e鈥檚 not someone who really regrets what he鈥檚 done,鈥� said the prosecuting attorney.
Mahaboudi, who was said to be addicted to cannabis and pornography, was the brother of the victim鈥檚 daughter-in- law.
On April 11, 2015, he went to Price鈥檚 house hoping to find his ex-girlfriend, who had recently left him.
Price let him in and offered Mahaboudi a cup of coffee, on which his DNA was found.
Mahaboudi also strangled the woman he killed in 2005.
鈥淚t was stronger than me,鈥� he said of the urge to murder Price. 鈥淚 took hold of her neck and squeezed.鈥�
He said he was at a loss to explain why he committed the attack.
鈥淗e鈥檚 a boy who did not know how to develop as a man because he had a violent father (who was) imposing and very severe,鈥� said defence attorney Isabelle Gillet, who claimed Mahaboudi was raped as a child by an acquaintance of his father.
Given an opportunity to speak before jurors retired to deliberate, Mahaboudi said: 鈥淚 ask to be given a chance. Deep down I know I can be rehabilitated.鈥� TVJ