A 72-year-old woman on Monday went on trial in France accused of torturing her four-year-old daughter to death in the 1980s, after a DNA match reopened the cold case.
The main defendant walked briskly, head dropped and face hidden with a scarf, as she left the courtroom in the town of Blois at lunchtime, pursued by child rights activists crying “shame” and calling for justice.
Her husband, a 74-year-old from whom she is now separated, earlier struggled up the courthouse’s steps with a cane, wearing a black cap, sunglasses and face mask.