The teen, who lived in a home and had “a tendency proved to pyromania, boasted among his companions of being the author”.
A minor 16 years of age has been indicted “for the crime of voluntary destruction by fire” of the forest of Chiberta in Anglet (Pyrenees-Atlantiques), where the fire had ravaged the July 30, 167 hectares, has announced this Friday the prosecutor of Bayonne.
The teen, who lived in a home and had “a tendency proved to pyromania, boasted among his companions of being the author,” said the prosecutor of the Republic of Bayonne, Jerome Bourrier during a press conference. The minor, who now calls the “bragging”, then denied the facts, said the prosecutor.
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The investigation led by the judicial police of Bayonne, has allowed to establish “evidence of serious and converging” against the young man, who faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. A local woman had made a report to investigators this last weekend, after talking with the two young people who had boasted the young man.
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The prosecutor specified that “the mode of operation is not established. There is no certainty about the way in which the fire was underway.”
The young man was already known to police for his “tendency to pyromania”, after a fire was reported in the bedroom of his home at the end of June, has yet to know the attorney.
It was late in the afternoon in expectation of the decision of the judge of freedoms and detention relating to his remand in custody, required by the public prosecutor.
The spectacular fire of the forest of Chiberta, in the centre of Anglet, had also destroyed five houses without casualties. Twenty-six people were briefly hospitalized, said the prosecutor. The mayor of Anglet Claude Olive had felt that a “human tragedy” had been avoided.
