Geneviève Lhermitte

Case identification

Geneviève Lhermitte was a Belgian woman convicted for killing her five children.

Timeline

• February 28, 2007 — Geneviève Lhermitte killed her five children and then attempted suicide.
• December 8, 2008 — Her trial began at the Assize Court of Brabant-Wallon in Nivelles.
• December 17, 2008 — The jury was described as having not followed psychiatrists’ opinions about her mental state.
• December 19, 2008 — The Assize Court of Brabant-Wallon ended the trial and sentenced her to life imprisonment.

Background

Personal details

Geneviève Lhermitte was born on November 16, 1966 in Brussels to Michel Lhermitte, a businessman and student, and Marina Schoevaert, a nurse. Lhermitte had two younger sisters: Catherine in 1969 and Mireille in 1972.

Lhermitte struggled with coursework and self-confidence during her secondary studies but graduated in 1991 with a diploma in French and History from the Educational Institute of Social Promotion of the French Community (IEPSCF) in Uccle. In the 1988-1989 year at IEPSCF, she met her future husband, Bouchaib Moqadem, who was studying mathematics and physics but did not complete his studies.

Family and living arrangements

Lhermitte and Moqadem married on September 22, 1990. They moved into the apartment of Dr. Michel Schaar, a physician, with whom Moqadem was residing. Schaar had befriended Moqadem’s family in Morocco in the 1980s and served as the young man’s host in Belgium. Moqadem considered Schaar as an adoptive father.

Schaar was the primary financial provider while Moqadem worked at a convenience store. Lhermitte did not object to living with Schaar in his apartment because she thought it would be temporary.

After Lhermitte began working as a teacher, she gave birth to her children in the following sequence:

• Yasmine (born August 13, 1992)
• Nora (born February 13, 1995)
• Miriam (born April 20, 1997)
• Mina (born May 20, 1999)
• Mehdi (born August 9, 2003) as her first son and fifth child

From June 1, 1995 to August 31, 1996, Lhermitte was granted leave from her teaching position due to postpartum depression.

After the birth of her first child Yasmine, Schaar purchased a house for himself and the couple to live in, and he dedicated his apartment to his practice. Schaar hired Moqadem to serve as his filing assistant part-time in 1996 and full-time in 1998. During this period Schaar covered most expenses, including vacations, house repairs, monthly allowances, and life insurance for each family member.

The family moved from Brussels to the provincial town of Nivelles. Schaar paid the mortgage and lived on the second floor.

Mental health and psychiatric care

Lhermitte began consulting psychiatrist Dr. Diderick Veldekens in 2005, following Schaar’s recommendation that she see a psychiatrist. She had regularly seen a psychiatrist and was reported to demonstrate serious mental issues. She was battling with depression for many years.

She later testified that her home situation distressed her. In the period leading to the killings, she reported feeling exhausted after five consecutive pregnancies and said she could no longer deal with her home situation.

The offence

What happened on February 28, 2007

On February 28, 2007, Moqadem was expected to return from a trip to Morocco to visit his family. Lhermitte took her eldest daughter Yasmin to a dermatology appointment. After picking up the rest of her children from school and preparing lunch, she heard a voice tell her, "the machine is running."

She mailed two letters: one letter with jewelry for her sisters and another letter to her friend Valerie. In the letter to Valerie, she called Dr. Michel Schaar "a rotten bastard" who "stole" the intimacy between herself, her husband, and her children. She also accused her husband of being "deaf" and "blind" to her concerns regarding Dr. Schaar.

After mailing the letters, she went to a grocery store and slipped two knives into her shopping bag.

When she returned, she hid the knives in a drawer and called over her youngest daughter Mina while the other children were watching Spy Kids 3. Lhermitte tried to strangle Mina, but when the child struggled she resorted to slashing Mina’s throat with one of the stolen knives while speaking comforting words and apologizing to the child.

Medhi was the next child killed. When her attempts to strangle her child again failed, Lhermitte cut Medhi’s throat and washed the knife afterward in the bathroom sink.

According to her account, she then told daughter Myriam that she had a surprise for her in the office. When Myriam entered the office, she told her to sit on a chair and wear a blue handkerchief over her eyes. Once Myriam was seated, Lhermitte took a marble plaque she found nearby and smashed it over Myriam’s head, then cut her throat.

Nora was asked to sit in a chair while Lhermitte slit her throat from behind. After Nora had been killed, Lhermitte wrote the letters "JUD" on the bathroom mirror in Nora’s blood and later stated that she intended to spell the name "Judas."

Lhermitte’s last victim was her eldest daughter, Yasmin. She called over Yasmin and told her she had a surprise for her, like she had done with Myriam. Lhermitte attacked Yasmin from behind as Yasmin entered the office. Yasmin dodged the knife by diving to the ground. After a struggle in which Yasmin suffered multiple stab wounds, Lhermitte stabbed her in the back and slashed her throat.

With her children dead, Lhermitte attempted to kill herself by falling on her knife. When she realized the wound would not be fatal, she wrote "call the police" in red marker on her door and called emergency services. Investigators found the four children tucked in their beds, some with stuffed toys in their arms.

Verbatim statements made by Lhermitte

Lhermitte told authorities during the investigation: "the machine has begun working."

She said: "I have taken the decision to go very far away with my children forever."

She testified in court: "We [Lhermitte and Moqadem] had to wait until he fell asleep before we could make love. I found that weird but Bouchaib said he regarded him as his stepfather. I think the doctor loved my husband in a platonic way."

She said: "He watched TV with us in the evenings and went on holiday with us in the summer. We depended on him financially."

When asked why she laid the dead body of her 13-year-old daughter Nora in the bathroom used by Dr Schaar, she replied: "I wanted to hurt him. Nora was his favourite."

She said: "Your task is to discover why a woman who had hitherto been a perfect mother suddenly exploded."

She later said after the trial and divorce: "I gave him a son and killed him. I've lost all children through my own fault. They never deserved it. 'I shall suffer to the end of my days - that is my punishment.'"

She also said in court: "He lived with us he even went on our honeymoon and slept in our room. We had to wait until he fell asleep before we could make love," and: "I found that weird but Bouchaib said he regarded him as his stepfather. I think the doctor loved my husband in a platonic way." She added: "He watched TV with us in the evenings and went on holiday with us in the summer.

She told police she felt "desperate and trapped" at having to be at home with the children while her husband was away.

Lawyer and courtroom statements

Xavier Magnee told the jury: "Your task is to discover why a woman who had hitherto been a perfect mother suddenly exploded."

Investigation and arrest

Emergency services met the scene on February 28, 2007 at the former teacher’s home in Nivelles. Police discovered the bodies of Lhermitte’s four daughters and son, aged from three to 14, in their beds with their throats slit, with the floor and the walls covered with blood. Lhermitte was found sitting against the wall in the hallway with a deep gash in her throat and had told an emergency worker she had tried to commit suicide after having killed her five children.

Trial

Court and jury

The trial began on December 8, 2008 and lasted about two weeks, ending December 19, 2008. It took place in the Assize Court of Brabant-Wallon in Nivelles.

The jury consisted of eight women and four men. Geneviève Lhermitte’s lawyers were Daniel Spreutels and Xavier Magnee.

Prosecution and sentencing request

Prosecutor Pierre Rans began opening statements with a description of the scene on February 28, 2007 at the former teacher’s home in Nivelles. The prosecutor asked for 30 years in prison.

Defense and focus of the trial

Genevieve Lhermitte confessed to the murder of her children. The trial therefore focused on what drove her to commit the crime.

Lhermitte testified that her role as wife and mother was disrupted by having middle-aged Belgian doctor Michel Schaar living in the same house as part of the family. She stated that Scharr accompanied her and Moqadem on their honeymoon and stayed in their room, and she described waiting until he fell asleep before they could have sex. She said Moqadem considered Scharr as his stepfather and that she thought the doctor loved her husband in a platonic way.

She also testified about their reliance on Dr. Schaar financially.

Psychiatric testimony and the jury’s decision

Psychiatrists had found that Lhermitte was not of sound mind when she committed the acts and should not be held accountable. They felt she should be admitted into a psychiatric institution rather than going to prison, but the jury did not follow their opinions.

A portrayal of the trial proceedings stated that the psychiatrists had initially deemed that the defendant could be held accountable and then changed their minds based on new evidence described as letters written by Geneviève Lhermitte before she killed her children. The psychiatrists said these letters showed she was extremely desperate and that she could relapse or commit suicide.

Closing statements and verdict

In her closing argument, Lhermitte said she would accept any punishment the court gave her and showed remorse. The jury returned a guilty verdict earlier in the day.

The jury found Geneviève Lhermitte guilty of murder, not following the opinion of the psychiatrists.

Sentencing

Geneviève Lhermitte received the maximum sentence for the murder of her five children. The court and the jury did not take any extenuating circumstances into account. She was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Appeals

No appeal details were included for the criminal conviction.

Outcome

Geneviève Lhermitte was sentenced to life imprisonment on December 19, 2008.

Aftermath

Divorce and billing under Belgian law

After the trial, Lhermitte filed for and received a judgment of divorce before her trial. Moqadem initially appealed the decision but later withdrew his objection. Following the trial, Lhermitte was not able to pay for the trial costs, so under Belgian law it fell to her now ex-husband to pick up the bill. The expenses and fines were 72,743 euros (about $93,000).

Moqadem said he was "disgusted and revolted" by the injustice of this billing system. Moqadem’s attorney attempted to have the bill written off, calling for "administrative requirements to be balanced by decency" given the nature of the tragedy.

Moqadem’s remarriage and later reported matters

In February 2010, Moqadem remarried Asmae Beldi, a professor of Islamic law at the Faculty of Islamic Sciences in Brussels. A daughter was born to the couple about a year later.

In June 2013, it was reported that Moqadem had lost 30,000 euros in an investment scam and that he was being harassed by Lhermitte's former attorney for further fees.

Civil lawsuit against psychiatrist

After being sentenced to life imprisonment, Lhermitte filed a lawsuit seeking €3m in damages against her psychiatrist, Diderik Veldekens. She argued that if her psychiatrist had rushed to see her while she was in her disturbed state, the crime would not have been committed. She sought "secure recognition of the prejudice genuinely suffered" due to the psychiatrist’s alleged inaction.

During the trial, Veldekens reported meeting with Lhermitte after a first alarming letter but said he could not meet with her on February 13, 2007 due to his full schedule.

In December 2011, the case was dismissed against Veldekens. The court ruled that the criminal charges against the psychiatrist were "irrelevant."

Film adaptation and related lawsuit

Belgian director and screenwriter Joachim Lafosse released "Our Children," a film based on the story, to positive reviews in 2012. One reviewer called the film a "gloomy and penetrating psychological drama" portraying the claustrophobia of a protagonist who lives in an environment in which "the walls are constantly closing in around her." The film attained an 93% rating on the aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes.

Émilie Dequenne played the character based on Genevieve Lhermitte. Dequenne won the Un Certain Regard Award at the Cannes Film Festival and "Best Actress" at the Saint Petersburg International Film Festival for her role.

In December 2010, Moqadem and Schaar filed a lawsuit against Lafosse demanding that they be able to review the film's screenplay. The 4th Civil Chamber of the Court of Brussels ruled that the lawsuit was "admissible but unfounded." Production had already begun with cast negotiations finished and the team having approached the French government about receiving subsidies, and Lafosse demonstrated no intent to hand over his work. Their lawyer released an official statement: "Moqadem and Schaar feel that this is a violation of their privacy and do not understand why the filmmakers have so little respect for them."