A woman has been given a rare life sentence for the murder of French schoolgirl Lola Davier

A woman who raped and killed 12-year-old Lola Daviet in Paris has been given a rare life sentence in a case that shocked France.

Dahbia Benkired, 27, must spend at least 30 years in prison after a panel of judges and juries decided to impose the harshest possible sentence in the country.

The lifetime term is extremely rare in France and Benkired is the first woman to receive it.

Those convicted include serial killer and rapist Michel Fournier and jihadist Salah Abdeslam, who was involved in the 2015 Paris attacks that killed 130 people.

Lola was murdered in October 2022. Her body was found in a plastic storage box in the courtyard of the building where she lived in northeast Paris.

Benkired is an Algerian immigrant who has been ordered to leave the country. French right-wing and far-right politicians took up the case.

Lola’s mother Delphine Daviet and her brother Thibaut were in court to hear the verdict. Her father Johan Daviet died in 2024 at the age of 49.

The prosecutor in the trial insisted that Benkired should receive the longest sentence possible. Benkired was examined by psychiatrists and found to have “psychopathic” traits, but was otherwise normal.

The prosecutor told a panel of three judges and six jurors: “Make no mistake, no amount of drug treatment can fundamentally change Ms. Benkired’s personality. When there is no disease, there is no cure.”

Before jurors began their deliberations on Friday, Benkired told the court: “I am asking for forgiveness and what I have done is terrible.

“That’s all I have to say.”