Genevive Lhermitte

Passions

Belgian mother who killed her five children, a son (3 and a half year) and four daughters (7, 10, 12 and 15 years) by slitting their throat on 28 February 2007 in Nivelles, Belgium. The woman had been battling with psychiatric problems for several years. A month before the events she told her psychiatrist she could no longer deal with her home situation. She said she had felt exhausted after five consecutive pregnancies and felt let down by her husband, Bouchaïb Moqadem, who was often in his native Morocco. The woman was often left to care for her children by herself. She said she also objected to the fact that her husband let Dr Michel Schaar, who he treated like his adopted father, come and live in their home. She saw the murder of her children and committing suicide as her only way out. On the day of the killings she stole a knife from a supermarket. Once at home she put the children in front of the video and called them upstairs one by one. She then proceeded to cut their throats. She then tucked them all in their own bed and tried to stab herself to death. She lost consciousness and when she came to she alerted the police. She was sentenced to life imprisonment on 19 December 2008. On the 29th of September 2015 (still in prison) she married an inmate of the Mons prison, a convicted murderer who is going to be released in 2016.