French authorities are prosecuting a 42-year-old nanny from Algeria accused of attempting to poison a Jewish family, whose children she cared for over several months, Le Parisien reported on Monday.
The woman, identified as Leila Y., looked after the three children, aged two, five, and seven, from late 2023 until January 2024, at their home in a Paris suburb. The parents began raising concerns in late January, when routine beverages and food began tasting or smelling strange, prompting a police investigation.
On January 30, 2024, the children’s father reported that his wife had sipped wine that tasted of a cleaning product. Soon after, she noticed that her makeup remover burned her eyes. The night before the report, moments after the nanny had left the home, she detected foam on a bottle of grape juice and a bleach-like odor coming from a bottle of wine. No one other than the family and the nanny had access to the house.
Toxicology Tests Reveal Contaminated Food and Drinks
Police seized several suspicious items from the residence, including an all-purpose cleaning spray and a bleach-based product branded as WC Activ. Investigators later learned that the couple’s five-year-old daughter had witnessed the nanny pouring a soapy substance into a bottle of alcohol on February 3.
Toxicology tests confirmed the presence of polyethylene glycol (PEG) and other chemical compounds in wine, whisky, fig liquor, grape juice, and even pasta consumed by the family. PEG, commonly used in cosmetics and eye drops, can be corrosive and cause severe gastrointestinal injury, according to the Criminal Court Referral Order.
Explicit Antisemitic Motive
The nanny was taken into custody on February 5. During questioning, she confessed to contaminating the family’s food and drinks. Her statements revealed an explicit antisemitic motive. According to the report, she told police she carried out the poisoning attempt “because they have money and power,” and added, “I should never have worked for Jews; they only brought me problems.”
She acknowledged wanting to cause the family pain as a “warning” during a dispute over her wages. A security guard at the children’s Jewish school corroborated her prior antisemitic remarks, recalling that she complained the family was “stingy” and insisted, “They have money, they can give it to me.”
Charges Upgraded to Hate-Motivated Offense
While she was initially indicted for attempted poisoning, prosecutors later revised the charge because the substances used did not meet the legal threshold of being lethal. She now stands trial in the Nanterre criminal court for “administration of a harmful substance, committed because of race, ethnicity, nation or religion.” The case underscores the persistent threat of antisemitic violence directed at Jewish families, even within private spaces presumed to be safe.
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