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A French court has sentenced a former high school student to 15 years in prison on Friday, April 24 2026, for stabbing his Spanish teacher to death in 2023.
The 19‑year‑old defendant was found guilty of murdering 53‑year‑old teacher Agnès Lassalle at a school in the southwestern town of Saint‑Jean‑de‑Luz.
The attack occurred during a lesson in February 2023, when the student was 16. The court heard he locked the classroom door before stabbing the teacher in the chest with a kitchen knife, which he took from his father’s home.
After three hours of deliberation, the juvenile criminal court handed down a sentence slightly below the 16 years prosecutors had requested and well under the maximum possible 20 years.
The trial, which was held behind closed doors in the city of Pau, focused heavily on the teenager’s mental state, though psychiatric experts gave conflicting assessments.
The court ruled that his judgement was defective at the time of the attack, a finding that could have reduced the sentence to 13 years.
However, the judges said a longer term was justified given the “undeniable seriousness” of the crime.
Lassalle’s death sparked widespread anger across France, especially after images emerged of her partner dancing alone beside her coffin during the funeral.
The teenager will serve his sentence under juvenile criminal law due to his age at the time of the offence.
