French headteacher describes spiral of events that led to beheading

The former headteacher of a French school has revealed the shocking sequence of events that led to the beheading of Samuel Paty by a Chechen refugee.

Audrey F told the court in Paris how she had tried to stop a row spiralling out of control that began with a 13-year-old student lying to her parents.

What began with Samuel Paty giving a lesson on freedom of expression in October 2020 escalated when the father of the girl, who had not even been in the class, turned up at the headteacher’s office with a local Islamist activist.

“I didn’t manage to protect him,” Audrey F said of her late colleague – a well-liked history and geography teacher in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine.

“It’s such an enormous waste.”

The row tragically ended with Paty’s murder outside the school by 18-year-old Abdoullakh Anzorov, who was shot dead by police at the scene.

The girl, known in court by the initial Z, had just been suspended by the school for two days for repeated absence and rudeness.

That was not what she had told her parents.

The girl claimed she had confronted Paty in a class she had not attended, falsely alleging that he had told Muslim students to leave the room while he showed “naked” images of the Prophet Muhammad.

Although the mother of another girl had phoned the school in tears, Audrey F said she had called her back, with Samuel Paty also on the call, and said the mother appeared reassured.

In reality, three cartoons published by a French satirical magazine had been discussed in class, and Paty had said anyone who felt they might be offended did not have to stay.

Any depictions of the Prophet Muhammad are considered highly offensive by Muslims. But there had been no attempt to target or exclude Muslims students.

The following morning, Audrey F was told that the excluded student’s father Brahim Chnina was outside the school with another man, Abdelhakim Sefrioui, who wrongly claimed to be acting on behalf of French imams.

The pair were demanding action against Paty, who they condemned as a “thug” and wanted removed.

Audrey F said that while she had tried to focus the conversation on the girl’s exclusion from school, Abdelhakim Sefrioui had taken the lead, refusing to allow freedom of expression to be used by a “thug”.

The murder of Samuel Paty, 47, shocked France and came five years after militant Islamist gunmen murdered 12 people at the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo which published the original cartoons.

Abdelhakim Sefrioui and Brahim Chnina are accused of identifying Samuel Paty as a “blasphemer” in online videos and of involvement in a “criminal terrorist” group and complicity in “terrorist murder”.

They are among eight people on trial at the court in Paris who all deny the charges against them, while not denying their involvement in the case.

The other six include a pair accused of helping the teenage killer and others who are accused of egging him on on social media.

Audrey F, who has left France to teach at an international school in China, told the court that she had felt the next day that the situation had now become a problem and “something is not right at the school”.

Two videos appeared on social media, one from Brahim Chnina in which his daughter repeated her lies about the class, another later from Abdelhakim Sefrioui, naming both Samuel Paty and the school.

“By now I was very worried, not specifically for Mr Paty but for the school,” she told the court.

On the advice of a superior she went to the police with Samuel Paty, where he filed a complaint, and contacted the local authority.

The geography teacher was urged to stay at home until the school holidays which were only days away. He refused to do so and Audrey F did not insist.

Threatening emails were sent to the school and there were anonymous phone-calls too. A police car was parked outside the school for several days.

On the final day of half-term, at 16:45 on Friday 16 October, Samuel Paty was stabbed and decapitated by the 18-year-old Chechen refugee outside the school.

Brahim Chnina’s daughter has already been convicted of making false and slanderous accusations, while five other teenagers have been found guilty of taking part in a group preparing aggravated violence.

When asked in court what Abdelhakim Sefrioui and Brahim Chnina could have done to calm the situation, Audrey F said nothing would have happened if they had not posted videos online.

Regretting that she had been unable to protect her colleague, the former headteacher said: “I tell myself that if there is justice, perhaps I’ll manage to move on.”