Toulouse: the rapist and alleged murderer of Alicia, 14, in court

The trial of the alleged rapist and murderer of Alicia, strangled to death at 14 in April 2018, opened on Monday before the Haute-Garonne Assize Court.

Read also: A man tried on Tuesday for around thirty rapes in the Sénart forest

The accused, Alexandre Besse, a 22-year-old cook in pre-trial detention since the facts advance the thesis of an "

" occurred during consensual sexual relations, following which he would have panicked, according to his lawyer, Muriel Amar-Touboul .

Tried for "

", he must also answer for the sexual assault of another 17-year-old girl.

Originally from Reims, he had been the subject, still a minor, of a conviction for sexual exhibition.

Alicia had been discovered in cardio-respiratory arrest, on the evening of April 19, 2018 by gendarmes, in the accused's apartment in Beauzelle, near Toulouse.

Described by the civil parties as "

", she was hidden in a bed-trunk, a T-shirt in the mouth and a cord around the neck.

She was initially able to be revived, but died in hospital.

The gendarmes had intervened at the home of the accused to whom the schoolgirl had gone with a friend - exonerated - after being alerted by the father and stepmother of the teenager, worried about her delay to enter.

Alexandre Besse had claimed that Alicia had left his home, and tried to hide her from the gendarmes, by remaining seated on the safe bed.

Summoned to get up, he had fled before being caught up shortly after in Blagnac, a neighboring town.

"

" said AFP Me Jean-Baptiste Alary, who represents the victim's godmother.

"

", he added.

The verdict is expected Wednesday.

The accused faces life imprisonment.

SEE ALSO

- Serial rapes in the Sénart forest: the plaintiffs' lawyers do not expect "much" from the trial