A nanny from Algeria who attempted to poison a Jewish family in France was sentenced on Thursday to two and a half years in prison by a criminal court in Nanterre. While in custody, the 42-year-old woman identified as Lila Y admitted to pouring cleaning fluid into bottles of alcohol and grape juice in January 2024, saying she acted over a dispute about payment for caring for the family’s children, ages 2, 5 and 7.
During the trial, the caregiver retracted her confession but failed to convince the presiding judge of her innocence. He stressed the “gravity of the acts, not in their outcome but in the way they were carried out.” The family was not physically harmed but suffered deep trauma. The judge ruled, however, that the act was not motivated by antisemitism but by a financial dispute.
The court heard that antisemitic remarks were made several weeks after the incident to a police officer at a station and without a lawyer present, meaning the defendant could not be convicted on that count.
“We expect the prosecution to appeal this verdict,” said the parents’ lawyer, Sacha Gozlan, speaking to French media. “Rejecting the aggravating circumstance of antisemitism in a case like this sends a particularly troubling message,” said Céline Beckerman, a lawyer for the International League Against Racism and Antisemitism.
The caregiver acknowledged that her remarks constituted “hate speech” and apologized to the parents, claiming she is neither racist nor antisemitic. Her lawyer, Solange Merla, said she was “satisfied with the acquittal on the antisemitism charge.”
The court also convicted the woman of using forged documents and falsifying a Belgian identity card. After serving her sentence, she will be banned from entering France for five years.
The caregiver said she had a financial dispute with the family, but investigators also found that she had conducted online searches related to Jews a month before being hired.
According to the French daily Le Parisien, shortly after Lila began working in January 2024, family members reported that food and drinks tasted strange, and the 7-year-old daughter said she saw the caregiver pouring “something” into the food. After the family filed a complaint in early February 2024, investigators found significant amounts of bleach in food and beverages, including substances that can cause allergic reactions, severe diarrhea, serious gastrointestinal damage and death if consumed in large quantities.
Lila was later arrested on suspicion of “administering a harmful substance on the grounds of race, ethnic origin, nationality or religion.” Authorities discovered she was an undocumented immigrant, using a forged Belgian identity card after her original French visa had expired.