Frenchman jailed for UK mother-in-law slaying

BEAUVAIS, France, April 1 (AFP) – A French court on Friday sentenced Cherif Doua to 30 years in jail for slaying his British mother-in-law in England after she told him he was a “loser” and not good enough for her daughter.

Doua, 41, had admitted stabbing 62-year-old Valerie Brocklesby to death and attacking his wife Jayne, now aged 32, at their home near Birmingham, central England in January 2000. But he denied planning the killing.

The prosecutor had asked for a maximum sentence of life imprisonment arguing that the defendant had acted with premeditation.

Doua testified that on the morning of the crime, he had secretly entered the Brocklesby home to try to see his wife, who had filed for divorce and returned to Britain after he was jailed for trafficking stolen cars.

“I found myself face-to-face with Valerie,” he said. “I asked her why she refused to allow me to see Jayne. She told me I was a loser, that I wasn’t good enough for her daughter anymore.

“I could feel the pressure building up inside me. I could no longer control myself. There was a knife, I stabbed her, I don’t know how many times,” Doua told the court in Beauvais, north of Paris.

Investigators said Doua used a knife that he found on the kitchen counter. Jayne Brocklesby, seeing her mother lying in a pool of blood, began to scream. Doua then allegedly stabbed his wife several times with a pair of scissors, seriously wounding her.

Brocklesby broke down in tears as she gave her account of events in court. She said the scissor attack had left the left side of her face paralysed for several months.

Doua was tried in his hometown of Beauvais rather than in Britain because France refuses to extradite its own nationals.

Anne Griffiths, one of Valerie Brocklesby’s friends, testified that Doua had expressed violent tendencies before, threatening to disfigure his wife if she ever cheated on him.

“He apparently told Jayne that if she ever cheated on him, he would burn her face with acid or cut her so that no other man would ever look at her,” Griffiths said.

Two days after the stabbings, Doua’s car was found in a parking lot in the English Channel port of Folkestone. A month later, French police arrested him at the Gare du Nord train station in Paris. He has been in custody ever since.

After deliberating for more than four hours Friday, the court in Beauvais handed down the 30-year sentence and stipulated that the defendant must serve at least 20 years before becoming eligible for parole.

One of Doua’s lawyers said his client would appeal the sentence.