The 16-year-old teenager, suspected of having stabbed his teacher on Wednesday in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, told investigators that voices had urged him to take action, and that he was “possessed”.
On Wednesday, a Spanish teacher was stabbed to death while teaching at Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin high school in Saint-Jean-de-Luz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques). The suspect, whose custody was extended on Thursday, is a 16-year-old teenager, educated in the same establishment.
Shortly following the incident, the latter told investigators that he had heard “voices” and that he was possessed. The public prosecutor of Bayonne, Jérôme Bourrier, detailed this Thursday that during the hearings, the teenager evoked “a small voice which speaks to him, a being whom he describes as selfish, manipulative, egocentric, who incites him to do evil and who had suggested to him the day before that he commit an assassination”.
Statements supported by a source close to the investigation with BFMTV: the teenager suffers from “proven psychiatric disorders”.
A sharp delirious puff
But in this context, what is hidden behind these “proven psychiatric disorders”? On our antenna, the clinical psychologist Johanna Rozenblum indicates that “everything expresses the notion of acute delirious puff”.
“The person is subject to hallucinations, he can hear voices, he can see things, have unusual bodily sensations… But also have delusional ideas, like being controlled by a thought or someone’s voice. ‘other’, notes the specialist.
Contacted by BFMTV.com, child psychiatrist Christine Barois recalls that the manifestation of a delirious puff in a teenager “is not an unprecedented event”, and the site Santé.frattached to the government, specifies that these puffs “most often occur in adolescents and young adults”.
“A passage to the act of this kind, extremely serious, is exceptional”, however wishes to specify Christine Barois.
“A clap of thunder in a serene sky”
But although documented and known to specialists, these disorders are difficult to identify upstream by those around them. The students of the Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin high school all expressed their dismay at the possible acting out of their comrade, who although having some difficulties in socializing, did not in any way suggest that he might become violent.
“A delirious puff is a thunderclap in a serene sky, according to the definition of pathology. It is therefore difficult to predict when it will happen”, notes Christine Barois.
Some warning signs can still appear, especially during the so-called prodromal phase, which precedes the puff. Santé.fr notes that “in the days preceding the delirious puff, the person no longer sleeps or very little”.
Johanne Rozenblum evokes “fairly discreet underlying symptoms”, which “can be identified by relatives, such as a kind of oddity in the language, a strangeness in the behavior”.
Diagnosis more difficult in adolescents
As part of the drama that took place in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, where the suspect is a teenager, these first signs may have gone unnoticed by his age.
“It can be difficult for parents to realize this beforehand. There may be a change in behavior before the delusional puff. But in adolescence, such changes are not uncommon. Parents do not therefore do not have the reflex to think that their child may have a delirious puff because he is acting abnormally”, indicates Christine Barois to BFMTV.com.
Same observation drawn up by the child psychiatrist Jean-Marc Ben Kemoun, expert at the Versailles Court of Appeal. “If there are warning signs, our loved ones may miss it. They may find that quirks are part of our character. There is a compliance of the family environment with some of our disorders”, declares- he on our antenna.
Thus, interviewed by the investigators, the mother of the teenager suspected in the murder in Saint-Jean-de-Luz told the investigators that her son had mentioned to her on one occasion the presence of a “voice”, without that she doesn’t pay much attention to it.
People in “high individual vulnerability”
Is there an audience more predisposed to these delirious puffs? Christine Barois confirms this, and evokes “young people who have a great individual vulnerability, which can be due to traumas during childhood, an absent entourage…”. The child psychiatrist also points to the role of cannabis, “which can increase the risk of delirious puffs appearing by 40%.
This Thursday, the public prosecutor of Bayonne, Jérôme Bourrier, revealed that the teenager implicated in Saint-Jean-de-Luz had suffered acts of harassment in his previous college, “which would have affected him a lot” .
“He was followed by a psychiatrist. In October 2022, he had attempted suicide with medication, and since then he had been prescribed antidepressants,” added the prosecutor.
The 14-year-old teenager is currently still heard by the investigators, showing that his mental state nevertheless allows him to understand and answer the questions of the police.
“This tells us that he came out of a state of acute crisis”, concludes Johanna Rozenblum.
