Audrey F, the former principal of the school where teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded by a Chechen refugee four years ago, testified in a Paris court about the sequence of events that led to the brutal murder.
The principal said that the tragic incident began after a 13-year-old Muslim student, identified only by the first letter of her name, Z, lied to her parents and said that the teacher told Muslim students to leave the classroom while he was showing immodest pictures of the Prophet Muhammad.
The student had been suspended from the school for two days for rudeness and repeated absences. However, the story she told her parents was that Paty had told Muslim students to leave before he planned to show pictures of the Muslim prophet "naked."
Paty had been giving a lesson on the subject of freedom"old Muslim man, Abdelhakim Sefrioui, showed up at the school to confront Paty and accuse him of being a "thug."
The principal tried to explain to them that the girl was not in school at all during the class they were complaining about because she had been suspended from school, and explained to her father about her disciplinary problems, but they refused to discuss anything other than what they falsely believed about Paty and his class.
"I didn't manage to protect him, it's a huge loss," the principal told the court while crying.
The student's father and his accomplice then began posting videos of the teacher on extremist Muslim social networks, calling him a "blasphemer." His daughter continued to lie about the class in these videos.
"By now I was very worried, not specifically for Mr Paty but for the school," the principle said. The school received threatening emails and phone calls. She and Paty went to the police to file a complaint. On October 16, Sefrioui attacked Paty outside the school, stabbing him and cutting off his head. Sefrioui was later shot and killed by police.
The principal stated, "I tell myself that if there is justice, perhaps I'll manage to move on."