On Wednesday, a Spanish teacher was stabbed to death while teaching at the Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin institute 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 after the incident, the latter told investigators that he had heard “voices” and was possessed. The Bayonne prosecutor, Jérôme Bourrier, detailed this Thursday that during the hearings, the adolescent evoked “a little voice that speaks to him, a being that he describes as selfish, manipulative, egocentric, who incites him to do evil and who has suggested the day before he committed a murder”.
Statements supported by a source close to the investigation with BFMTV: the teenager suffers from “verified psychiatric disorders”.
A delusional high pitched breath
But in this context, what is hidden behind these “proven psychiatric disorders”? On our antenna, clinical psychologist Johanna Rozenblum indicates that “everything expresses the notion of acute delusional murmur.”
“The person is subject to hallucinations, can hear voices, can see things, has unusual bodily sensations… But they also have delusional ideas, such as being controlled by a thought or the voice of someone ‘other’, says the specialist.
Contacted by BFMTV.com, the child psychiatrist Christine Barois recalls that the manifestation of a delusional murmur in an adolescent “is not an unprecedented event”, and the Santé.fr site, attached to the government, specifies that these murmurs “occur in the more often in adolescents and young adults.
“A passage to the act of this type, extremely serious, is exceptional”, nevertheless wishes to specify Christine Barois.
“A thunder in a serene sky”
But although documented and known by specialists, these disorders are difficult to identify upstream by those around them. Students at Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin Secondary School expressed dismay at the possible performance of his comrade, who, while having some difficulty socializing, in no way suggested that he might become violent.
“A delusional puff is thunder in a clear sky, as defined by pathology. So it’s hard to predict when it will happen,” says Christine Barois.
Some warning signs may still appear, especially during the so-called prodromal phase, which precedes the puff. Santé.fr points out that “in the days before the delusional murmur, the person no longer sleeps or sleeps very little.”
Johanne Rozenblum evokes “rather discreet underlying symptoms”, which “can be identified by relatives, as a kind of oddity in language, a strangeness in behavior.”
More difficult diagnosis in adolescents
As part of the drama that took place in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, where the suspect is a teenager, these early indications may have gone unnoticed for his age.
“It can be difficult for parents to realize this in advance. There may be a change in behavior before the delusional murmur. But in adolescence, such changes are not uncommon. Therefore, parents do not have the reflex to think that your child may have a delusional snort because he is acting abnormally,” Christine Barois tells BFMTV.com.
Same observation written by child psychiatrist Jean-Marc Ben Kemoun, expert at the Court of Appeal of Versailles. “If there are red flags, our loved ones may miss it. They may find that hobbies are part of our character. There is a conformity of the family environment with some of our disorders”, he declares on our antenna.
Thus, interviewed by investigators, the mother of the adolescent suspected of the murder in Saint-Jean-de-Luz told investigators that her son had once mentioned the presence of a “voice” to her, without her doing so. Don’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 great individual vulnerability, which may be due to childhood traumas, to an absent environment…”. The child psychiatrist also points to the role of cannabis, “which can increase the risk of delirious puffs by 40%.
This Thursday, the Bayonne prosecutor, Jérôme Bourrier, revealed that the teenager involved in San Juan de Luz had suffered acts of harassment at his previous school, “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 has been prescribed antidepressants,” the prosecutor added.
Investigators are still listening to the 14-year-old, showing that his mental state nonetheless allows him to understand and answer police questions.
“This tells us that it emerged from a state of acute crisis,” concludes Johanna Rozenblum.
Source: BFM TV
