Destructive Anger

Polish man admits kidnapping and
murdering 9-year-old girl after she shot
a water pistol at him
Witnesses said the man seized the girl by the
neck and dragged her into his car
By JOHN LICHFIELD
Thursday 16 April 2015
A Polish convicted criminal yesterday
admitted kidnapping and murdering a 9
years old girl who squirted him with a water
pistol as he drank beer in Calais while
waiting for a ferry to Britain.
The man, named as Zbigniew H., 38, seized
the little girl by the neck and dragged her
into his car shouting “I will kill you”,
witnesses said.
Her partially clothed body was found in
woodland two hours later. The local state
prosecutor, Jean-Pierre Valensi, said
yesterday that the man had admitted
murdering and sexually assaulting the girl.
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The death of Chloe, abducted on Wednesday
as she played in the street outside her own
home, has caused a wave of shock and anger
in France. The mayoress of Calais, Natacha
Bouchart, led a silent march of protest
through the streets of the Channel port
tonight.
In a tweet urging local people to join the
march, she said that Calais was “in mourning
for Chloe” and ordered flags to be flown at
half mast.
Chloe’s suspected killer was released from a
French prison in March last year after
serving four years of a six year sentence for
extortion and violence. He was deported to
Poland and banned from returning to French
territory.
The prosecutor said that he was driving from
Poland to Britain to visit his sister on
Wednesday afternoon when he pulled into a
side street in Calais to drink beer.
Relatives of Chloe mourn her death (Image:
PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP)
Eye-witnesses said that they saw the little girl
and a friend squirt him with a water pistol
through the open car window. A neighbour
told the local paper, La Voix du Nord, that he
had seen the man seize Chloe by the neck,
“almost strangling her”.
“She struggled and tried to get way. He held
her against a wall and shouted ‘I will kill
you’,” the eyewitness said. He then bundled
her into his car and drove away as her
mother looked on.
When arrested on Wednesday night close to
the woodland on the edge of Calais where the
child’s body was found, Zbigniew W was
breathalysed and had more than twice the
permitted limit of alcohol for drivers in his
blood, the prosecutor said.
He told a press conference yesterday that that
the man had confessed to sexually assaulting
and strangling the girl. The suspect faces
charges of abducting a minor, rape and
murder.
The Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, promised
an investigation on why the suspected killer
was released early from a French prison and
how he came to return to France. The
interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said
that he had already asked the Polish
authorities for an explanation.
Poland, Germany and France are members of
the European Union’s “Schengen” open
borders agreement. Anyone driving from
Poland to Calais, could do so without showing
a passport.