Dahbia Benkired, now aged 27, was detained after Daviet went missing in the northeast of Paris, her body then found in a trunk in the lobby of the building where her father and mother worked as caretakers. In the verdict, the presiding judge cited the "extreme cruelty of the criminal acts," describing them as "true torture." "In determining the appropriate sentence, the court took into account the unspeakable psychological damage to the victim and her family in such violent and almost unspeakable circumstances," he said.

The prosecutor had argued earlier in the day that Benkired should be handed an "irreducible life sentence," the harshest penalty under the French penal code, and one which does not allow for parole or a reduction in sentence. The sentence must reflect "the extreme gravity" of the crimes committed, "their cruelty," and "the suffering" they caused her family, he said. Investigators said Benkired raped and tortured the girl before suffocating her to death.