Defence Minister's niece jailed for knife killing

DEFENCE minister Quentin Davies's niece was jailed for 15 years by a French court yesterday after being convicted of killing a man at her flat in Paris.

The court, in Versailles, heard how Jessica Davies, 30, met 24-year-old Olivier Mugnier in a bar in November 2007 after spending the day drinking, and then went with him to her flat.

Later that night she called police, who found the student bleeding from knife wounds to the throat – the same knife which Davies had used months earlier in a suicide attempt.

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Davies admitted stabbing Mugnier, but insisted her memory of events had gone into "a black hole".

Davies faced a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, if convicted of "unpremeditated voluntary homicide".

She told the first officer on the scene: "It's me who did that, I'm a monster. I wanted to cut him a bit and it went right in."

Before sentencing, UK-born Davies, whose businessman father is Quentin Davies's brother, expressed her remorse and said she took responsibility for what happened, even though she could not remember the details.

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Prosecutor Myriam Quemener criticised Davies's "selective memory" but said the defendant's personality problems had to be kept in mind.

Davies has admitted she has had long-term problems with drink and drugs – the result, she claimed, of emotional problems triggered by the separation of her French mother and her father.

The court heard the knife used in the attack on Mr Mugnier was the same one used by Davies to slash her own wrists and legs in suicide bid three months earlier following a break-up.

A police report read out in court said she told officers who arrived in response to her emergency call on the night of the stabbing: "It's me who did that, I'm a monster. I wanted to cut him a bit and it went right in."

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Mr Mugnier was discovered naked and bleeding from throat wounds – with Davies trying to stem the flow. He died soon after medical help arrived.

Davies, who allegedly fetched the knife after the couple, both drunk, had abandoned efforts to have sex, had mixed alcohol with prescription drugs – a combination which could have triggered aggression, the jury was told.

Her mother, Monique Henry, told the court her daughter had been upset by family problems and had turned to drink in her teens.

Davies has vowed never to drink again.

Her uncle has served in Parliament for more than 20 years and joined the Labour party in 2007.

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