Patrick Dils

Patrick Dils (born 30 June 1970 in Longeville-lès-Metz) is a French victim of a miscarriage of justice.

Despite the death penalty having been abolished for minors in 1980 in France (and then fully in 1981), victims' parents put forth that they would have preferred a death penalty conviction for Patrick Dils.

On 28 September 1986, two children, Cyril Beining (b. 1978), and Alexandre Beckrich, were found dead alongside a SNCF track in Montigny-lès-Metz.

Patrick Dils, who was 16 years old at the time and a trainee cook, was questioned because he lived on the same street as the victims, and because he had been denounced by an anonymous call.

His timetable did not match with the hour of the murder indicated by the coroner, so he was released.

The first suspect who confessed was Mr. L., on 10 December 1986, who worked one hundred meters from the scene of the murder.

According to the report of the hearing, he accurately described the bike and children's clothing.

Police doubted his confession after he failed to climb up a slope at the crime scene during a reconstruction.

He was accused of the murder of two boys in Montigny-lès-Metz, in Moselle on 30 April 1987, at the age of 16.

On 28 April 1987, following a new testimony which reconsidered the time of death indicated by the coroner, he was taken in for questioning after finishing his shift at a restaurant in Montigny-lès-Metz.

After 36 hours in custody and police interrogation which lasted a few days, he admitted the murders and stated that he didn't know the reasons for the crimes.

On 30 April 1987, he was charged with voluntary homicides and sent to the prison of Metz-Queuleu.

He gave a different version to his attorney but the investigating judge organized a reconstruction on 7 May during which he continued to admit the crime.

Moreover, he recognised the rocks which served for the crime.

This fact convinced the judge of his guilt.

According to his parents, he didn't realise the importance of the procedure.

On the 30 May 1987, he wrote to his attorney to modify his declarations.

Seven months passed between the murder and Dils' arrest.

Dils' parents categorized judicial police inspector for the city of Metz Bernard Varlet, who was in charge of the investigation, as very aggressive and relentless toward Dils.

Varlet had already obtained confessions from two other suspects, but these were rejected.

Throughout the investigation investigators obtained confessions from three different people, all single, living with their parents and having a low level of education.

On 12 February 1987, investigators arrested a new suspect for "outraging public decency."

After confessing, he was eventually also exonerated because of inconsistencies in his testimony.

Dils was the last remaining suspect investigators had.

They believed he was guilty despite the inconsistencies that remained around the timeline of the murder, and the difficulty that a teenager may have had in causing the extreme physical violence acts perpetrated on the victims.

The judge at the time, Ms. Mireille Maubert, appeared to have the same view as the investigators.

When Dils' parents requested permission to visit their son, she responded that they would never see him again.

For sixteen months she repeatedly refused to grant Dils' parents permission to visit their son.

After sentencing and for the first time since April 1987, Dils' parents were allowed to see him for five minutes, in a corridor and under police surveillance.

On 27 January 1989, the court sentenced him to life imprisonment for murder.

On 27 January 1989, Dils was convicted of murder and sentenced to life by the juvenile Cour d'assises of Moselle.

The court did not take into account that Dils was a minor, despite the defense having repeatedly reminded the court of this fact and despite the fact that at the time, Dils being a minor would have entitled him to the possibility of his life sentence being limited to a maximum term of 25 years.

Dils' lawyers filed the first request for review with the Court of Cassation on 26 July 1990.

The request was rejected.

On 6 May 1994, Dils requested a presidential pardon from François Mitterrand, who refused him.

Mitterrand wrote to the victim's family and assured them that he would never grant clemency to a murderer of children.

Chief Warrant Officer gendarmerie, Jean-François Abgrall, from the research section of the gendarmerie Rennes, was a specialist in cases where the serial killer Francis Heaulme was convicted, indicted or a suspect.

On 24 April 2002 after spending 15 years in prison, he was exonerated.

The French government gave him one million euros (of which 700,000 euros in compensation) for judicial mistake.

This is one of the most serious judicial mistakes recognised in France and it's the first one concerning a minor sentenced to life imprisonment for murder.