Childminder tells Paris court she acted in self-defence as grieving parents attacked her and her boyfriend, who admits helping hide remains in forest

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A nanny has admitted in a Paris court on Tuesday to killing and dismembering the parents of a baby who had died in her care.



“It’s true, I killed them, and I will regret it for the rest of my life,” Hui Zhang, 34, said at the start of the hearing.

Hui said she merely acted in self-defence as the furious parents of the dead child attacked her and her boyfriend with a butcher’s knife.

Her boyfriend and co-accused, Te Lu, also 34, denied helping Hui kill the couple.

“I was sucked into a whirlwind of nightmares but I am innocent,” he told the court.

The case first came to light in June 2012 after two joggers stumbled upon a bare leg cut off at the ankle in the Vincennes forest on the edge of the French capital.



Several days later a guide dog found a human torso in the same area, but the hunt for further remains was fruitless.

Police knew the victims were Asian and initially thought the murders could be the work of Chinese criminal gangs, or that of Luka Rocco Magnotta, a Canadian convicted of killing and dismembering a Chinese student, who had spent time in Paris.

Luka Rocco Magnotta's web obsessions brought him down Read more

But before the bodies could be identified, Hui and Te turned themselves in. Hui told police she had been babysitting a two-month-old boy who had died in his sleep. She and her partner had decided to offer the child’s parents money in an attempt to persuade them not to report his death.

They invited the parents to their home but said their plans quickly went awry when faced with the anger of the grieving couple. Hui claims the parents attacked them first with a butcher’s knife.

“My client maintains she was acting in self-defence,” said the nanny’s lawyer, Alexis Guedj.

A lawyer for the family of the child’s mother, Chloe Arnoux, said Hui “was not able to tell them to their faces that their child was dead, so she brought the baby’s body into the sitting room”.

Arnoux disputes the claim of self-defence, arguing that the defendants had prepared for the meeting by equipping themselves with weapons.

Trying to cover her tracks, Hui then chopped up the two bodies in the bathroom with an electric saw, running the washing machine to cover the noise. She then wrapped the body parts in bin bags and scrubbed her apartment.

Her boyfriend confirmed her account, saying he fell unconscious during the fight and remained so while Hui cut up the bodies. When he came to, he says he helped her get rid of the remains.

“He was violently hit, it has been medically recorded,” said Te’s lawyer, Eric Dupond-Moretti, arguing that his client was not complicit in the murder.

After the couple turned themselves in, they directed police to the locations of more body parts they had hidden around the forest.

However, they did not find the baby’s body, which Hui said she had thrown into bins along with some of the other remains.

While the baby’s grandfather told police the nanny had given the child sleeping tablets, other parents she worked for have described her as attentive, and the case relating to the boy’s death was dismissed.

Police say there are no indications that Hui and Te, who arrived in France in 2004, were predisposed to this sort of crime.

Hui has been described by investigators as a highly intelligent and forceful character. Witnesses say she was the dominant partner in her relationship with Te, who is a business advisor.

After the murders, the couple went to China and closed their bank accounts in France but returned soon after.

They say they had always intended to return, but police claim they were worried about facing the death penalty in China.

The trial continues.