French Court Dismisses Antisemitism Charge in Nanny Poisoning Case

Nanny Sentenced for Poisoning Jewish Family

A French court in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris, has sentenced a 42-year-old Algerian nanny, identified as Leïla Y., to two and a half years in prison for poisoning the food and drinks of the Jewish family who employed her. The incidents, which involved mixing cleaning products into various items, occurred in January 2024. The court delivered its verdict on Thursday, December 18, 2025.

The nanny was found guilty of 'administering a harmful substance that caused incapacitation for more than eight days'. The substances used were described as 'harmful, even corrosive, and capable of causing serious injuries to the digestive tract'. The family, consisting of parents and three children aged two, five, and seven, noticed abnormalities in their food and personal care products, leading to the mother reporting the incidents to police.

Antisemitism Charge Dismissed on Procedural Grounds

Despite initial admissions by the nanny to police that included hateful remarks, the court ultimately dismissed the aggravating circumstance of antisemitism. During her arrest, Leïla Y. reportedly told officers she 'never should have worked for a Jewish woman' because 'they have money and power' and that she acted as a 'warning' due to a payment dispute.

However, the court ruled out the antisemitic motive on procedural grounds, stating that her alleged antisemitic comments were made several weeks after the poisoning incidents and were not recorded in the presence of a lawyer. The nanny later recanted her confession during the trial, claiming she had 'made up' the story under police pressure and denied any antisemitic motive.

Reactions and Further Legal Action

The court's decision to dismiss the antisemitism charge has been met with strong reactions. The family's lawyers described the ruling as 'incomprehensible' and insisted that 'justice has not been served'. They highlighted converging evidence, including children's testimony, third-party statements, the nanny's social media posts, and vandalized religious objects in the house, which they believed demonstrated an antisemitic motive. The family's legal team plans to pursue the antisemitic motive in a civil lawsuit. Prosecutors have also appealed the ruling.

Conversely, the nanny's lawyer, Solange Marle, expressed satisfaction with the ruling, stating that 'Antisemitism was not at all the motive behind this act. In this case, justice was applied independently, free from political or media influence'. The court also convicted Leïla Y. of administrative forgery for using a fake Belgian identity card and barred her from entering France for five years after serving her sentence.