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Court Convicts Woman For Fabricating Anti-Semitic Attack
"I wanted people to look after me," a pale Leblanc, dressed in jeans and a white sweatshirt, told a magistrate's court in the northwest Paris suburb. "I wanted my parents and [my partner] Christophe to look after me."
Asked by a civil party's lawyer why she had blamed the invented attack on youths of Arab or African origin, Leblanc said: "When I watch TV, they're always the ones who get blamed."
A public prosecutor explained how she invented the attack, cut off part of her hair and drew swastikas on her body.
Police said she had previously reported imaginary attacks on herself and a psychiatrist who examined her earlier this month said she had a very strong need to be acknowledged "no matter what the price".
The woman claimed she was robbed on a suburban Paris train earlier this month by a knife-wielding gang that mistook her for a Jew and scrawled swastikas on her body.
President Jacques Chirac reacted immediately, calling the alleged attack a "shameful act."
But police found no clues or witnesses. After learning the woman had a history of lying and filing complaints about assaults that were never proved, she was detained for questioning.
In a search of her home in the suburb of Aubervilliers, police found the marker she had used to draw swastikas on her body and other evidence. The woman subsequently went on national TV to issue a public apology.
"I offer my apologies to the president ... and people who demonstrated their support for my lie," she said on France-3 television last weekend, with her back to the camera. "I regret this act and I ask for forgiveness to those I deceived and hurt."
Earlier Monday, a prosecutor recommended a slightly tougher penalty: a six-month suspended sentence, a 2,000 euro ($2,430) fine and counseling.
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