A mother faces life imprisonment after confessing she drowned her 15-month-old daughter in the English Channel because the child was ‘incompatible’ with her love life.
CCTV footage has emerged of Fabienne Kabou, 36, from Senegal, pushing little Adelaide to the coast of Berck sur Mer on November 19.
he next day, Adelaide was found dead, strapped in a pushchair submerged in the water, by a fisherman.
After ten days of searching nationwide, police used DNA from the pram to trace Ms. Kabou to the home she shares with a 63-year-old man in Paris, where she was arrested.
Ms Kabou, a philosophy student, told police she took the drastic move after deciding motherhood was ‘incompatible’ with her love life with Adelaide’s father.
The case has sparked outrage as hundreds took to the streets outside the court and on the coast in a White March – a French style of demonstrating against child cruelty.
Ms Kabou had told her boyfriend, a sculptor, that she had handed over the little girl to her grandmother who had agreed to look after her in Senegal, police claim.
On Saturday, Kabou was taken under Police guard to Boulogne Sur Mer and questioned for four hours by an examining judge in a closed court session.
The judge placed her under investigation for murder. She was remanded in custody pending her trial.
Her lawyer Fabienne Roy-Nansion who was present during the interrogation said that her client had made a full confession.
In an interview with Le Parisien newspaper the father of Adelaïde said that Fabienne Kabou had been ‘a magnificent’ mother to her child.
Neighbours of the couple said they were at a loss to understand how the mother of the Adelaïde could have wanted to be rid of her.
Hundreds have taken to the streets in the past couple of days paying homage to the little girl in a White March.
The first White March took place on 1996 in Belgium as people demonstrated against Marc Dutroux, a serial killer and child molester.
Gerard Lopez, the president of the Institute of Victimology and legal expert at the Paris Court of Appeal, told 20minutes.fr: ‘First and foremost, she wanted to save her marriage by killing her child.
‘This would probably not have changed anything.
‘She is not crazy. Her actions were premeditated.
‘The investigation will now determine whether the woman was a victim of domestic or psychological violence from her partner.
‘Some develop narcissistic and immature behavior at the birth of a child.
‘By getting rid of the child, she may have been trying to meet the needs of her boyfriend who wanted more attention.’
Source: Daily Mail UK