Murder of children was planned

28 March 2007

BRUSSELS – Geneviève Lhermitte (40), the mother who killed her five children in Nivelles on 28 February, was not acting in frenzy of despair or insanity.

She has told detectives and court psychiatrists that she had prepared carefully for the murders. The woman had been convinced for some time that her husband was leading a double life in Morocco and therefore wanted to kill herself.

The woman says she had been making plans for some time to commit suicide and “take her children with her.” She has suffered from depression for years and became increasingly convinced that her husband Bouchaib Mokadem (43) was having an affair in Agadir (Morocco). A friend even claimed that he was married in Morocco and had a child there.

Lhermitte felt herself more and more isolated, was uncomfortable with the presence of Doctor Schaar (the children’s godfather) in the family home and feared that her husband would soon leave her to return to his country of origin, she told the court psychiatrist.

Subject: Belgian news