LIERNAIS :
Call for witnesses from Saulieu after the kidnapping of a girl by a recidivist rapist
On Monday around 8:30 p.m., Layla, age 6, has been kidnapped by 48-year-old man wanted by police as she was standing in front of the café owned by her parents, Nadine and Mehdi.
As she was going outside of the establishment to smoke a cigarette, a customer alerted the tenants after she saw a man take the child in his arm and climb a wall to run away with her.
Both of them then ran after him until they saw him take their daughter by force into his car, a brown Renault Express.
Her kidnapper was recognized by the gendarmes as David Fernandez, a serial rapist who's been imprisoned for 24 years and has been released on probation four months ago.
In 1989, he had already been sentenced to life imprisonment -with a minimum of 21 years in custody- in Pau, after he had raped seven children between 1985 and 1987 in Biarritz and Paris.
At the time of his first conviction, the pedophile had created an unprecedented psychosis of fear throughout the city. He had also been surnamed "the Spider" due to his arms that are about 6 centimeters longer than the average. It was also due to his way of entering in the apartments of his victims at night without breaking the locks of any door by climbing on the building façades.
The suspect is 6'3'' tall, bald, has grey eyes and wears sunglasses. His victim is 3'2'' tall, has curly short black hair and brown eyes. At the time of their disappearance, the man was wearing blue jeans, a black sweater, a brown jacket and black shoes. The girl was wearing a pink overall, a pink-stripped purple tee-shirt and white Nike sneakers with a black logo of the brand on it.
The man, considered as a "predator" is "extremely dangerous". The gendarmerie services call for witnesses everywhere.
To anyone with information that may further the investigation, please contact local brigades of gendarmerie of Saulieu at .91.