A pensioner accused of shooting an 11-year-old British girl dead and severely wounding her parents at their home in northern France tonight said: “It’s so horrible what happened – I don’t understand it”.
Dirk Raats, 71, spoke briefly on Monday evening as he was formally charged with the murder of Solaine Thornton, 11, and the attempted murders of Adrian and Rachael Thornton, 52 and 49 respectively.
The Dutch national is accused of aiming a volley of shots at the family, who are originally from the Manchester area, as they enjoyed a barbecue on Saturday.
The couple’s younger daughter, Celeste, eight, managed to get away unscathed to raise the alarm in the Brittany hamlet of Saint-Herbot, near Quimper.
Raats was taken from a secure police station for a 10-minute appearance before a judge at Brest Criminal Court.
Wearing a moustache and ponytail, he spoke in pidgin French.
“It’s so horrible what happened. I don’t understand,” he said, after judges confirmed a test showed he was “on drugs’” on Saturday.
The court heard that Raats had worked as a photographer, shepherd and career for the handicapped before retiring to France some five years ago.
Anne Guillerme, his defence barrister, said he had “no criminal record” and may have psychiatric problems.
Raats was remanded in custody following the charges, and could spend the rest of his life in prison if found guilty at trial.
Raats’s wife, who was named as Marlene van Hook, also in her 70s, was meanwhile being questioned on suspicion of concealing a weapon.
Mr Thornton remained “critical with life-threatening wounds” on Monday, while his wife was also in intensive care at the Cavale Blanche hospital in Brest, where they both underwent surgery.
All of the Thorntons were in the garden of their property – a converted saw mill – when shots were fired at around 9pm on Saturday.
The Thorntons had lived in the property – a converted sawmill close to Saint-Herbot chapel – for around five years.
Raats lived in a neighbouring converted schoolhouse with his wife.
Mr Thornton was well known around the hamlet and surrounding countryside for helping out with DIY tasks, while Mrs Thornton was a home help.
Solenne Thornton was a pupil at Jean Jaurès College, in the town of Huelgoat.
Pupils at the school were receiving psychological care on Monday, as classes resumed as normal on Monday morning, with a ‘medical monitoring team’ in place.
Guylène Esnault, director of education services in the Finistere department, said: ‘This is a small area, and everyone knows each other. The children will have heard about what happened.
‘The college principal will say what is appropriate to her students, and a monitoring team including a doctor, nurses and psychiatrists is in place.’
Solenne was in Year 6 at the college, which has around 150 students.
The UK Foreign Office said it aware of the shooting and “offering consulate assistance”.
