Prosecutors in France have called for a 15-year prison sentence for a woman convicted of killing her elderly grandfather by setting fire to his mattress, arguing that her crime was far from an act of mercy.
During an appeal hearing on Wednesday at the Assize Court in Ain, located in the eastern town of Bourg-en-Bresse, prosecutors urged the court to overturn a previous verdict that they considered excessively lenient.
In October 2024, the original trial had resulted in a five-year suspended sentence for 33-year-old Emilie G., who admitted to setting her 95-year-old grandfather alight while he was bedridden.
At the time, the court heard how Emilie described her actions as “an act of love,” claiming she wanted to end his suffering. However, prosecutors insisted this characterisation was deeply misleading.
“He did not die peacefully. This was not an act of love,” said prosecutor Eric Mazaud. “When you love someone, you don’t burn them.”
The victim, who was immobile and dependent on care, died from burns and smoke inhalation in August 2020.
During the appeal, Emilie expressed remorse but could not provide a clear explanation as to why she chose such a violent method to end her grandfather’s life.
“He didn’t have a death worthy of his life… fire is atrocious, it is inhuman,” she told the court on Tuesday.
The request for a 15-year sentence matches the punishment prosecutors had sought in the first trial, where they argued that Emilie’s actions were driven not by compassion but by emotional and psychological pressure in her personal life. At the time of the killing, she was struggling to care for her grandfather, raise her children, and manage a strained romantic relationship.
On the day of the incident, she had discovered that her partner had been unfaithful. Soon after, she doused her grandfather’s mattress with petrol, set a piece of paper alight, and threw it onto the bed before leaving the room.
Psychological experts assessed that she was in a “dissociative state” during the incident, a condition that reportedly clouded her judgment. Nonetheless, prosecutors in both trials maintained that the killing was deliberate and fuelled by frustration.
Prosecutor Romain Ducrocq previously told the court that Emilie had killed her grandfather to “exorcise her frustration and multiple failures.”
Emilie claimed that her grandfather, whom she described as a father figure, had pleaded with her to end his life on multiple occasions, including once after she found him lying in his faeces. She did not, however, inform other family members of his alleged requests.
Despite the horrific nature of the case, Emilie’s relatives have continued to support her, describing her actions as courageous.
A final verdict from the appeal court was expected on Wednesday evening.
