Neighbour charged with murdering British girl dies in prison

A Dutchman charged with murder for the killing of an 11-year-old British girl in France has died in prison, his lawyer revealed on Tuesday. 

Dirk Raats opened fire on a British family in June 2023 following a neighbourly feud over noise in Plonevez-du-Faou, a village in the western French region of Brittany. 

In the shooting - sparked according to prosecutors by the Dutchman's 'exasperation' over persistent chainsaw noise from the neighbouring property - the suspect killed the young girl, Solaine Thornton, and shot her father, 50-year-old Adrian, in the head.

Solaine's mother Rachael was lightly injured and her sister, Celese, then eight, managed to flee.

'Celeste had dodged a bullet and ran for her life up here saying: "They've killed my sister, and the man shot my dad",' the Thornton's family friend Pierre Leroy told The Daily Telegraph at the time.

'We went straight over there and the girl was dead and the mother was cradling her in her arms and screaming.'

'Over the years, there was deep exasperation that led to the drama,' Brest prosecutor Camille Miansoni said at the time.

The prosecutor said the couple were irked by the 'numerous jobs (the British father) was carrying out on his property' such as pruning and clearing undergrowth, Miansoni said.

The suspect, a former teacher in his 70s, and his Belgian partner tested positive for cannabis and alcohol use.

Two rifles were seized from their home, including a .22 Long Rifle believed to have been used at the scene.

The partner was charged with a failure to provide assistance to a person in danger, and placed under judicial supervision.

Raats's lawyer, Anne Guillerme, confirmed his death in jail, and made no further comment.

Solaine was shot just two weeks before she and the rest of her family were due to visit Britain for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. 

A source told the Mirror at the time that the family had just received their passports before the tragic incident. 

'They were so excited. They seem like such a close family and Covid parted them for so long.

'It was only a couple of weeks away and now this, their whole lives touched by evil,' the neighbour said.

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Irvin Thornton, the family's grandfather, told MailOnline shortly after the shooting of his grief and devastation upon learning that Solaine had been killed. 

He said: 'We don't know exactly what has gone on. We didn't know anything about a dispute. How can a 71-year-old man shoot a little girl?

'There might have been dispute over land but you do not do that. She didn't stand a chance. And in front of her sister. How is she going to get over that? It will live with her forever.'

Grandma Christine Rhodes – known as Grams to her granddaughters – previously paid tribute to Solaine.

She said: 'Solaine was such a sweet girl. The last time I spoke to Solaine, she told me that she had been writing for her school newspaper and she was so upset.

'She said "Grams, I have written in the newspaper about a girl who was 13-year-old and had been bullied and she took her own life" and then she was dead that night.

'She was a special little girl. She loved everybody. She loved everyone. She loved her animals and didn't have a bad bone in her body. She had lovely big eyes and skipped about.

'She was so loving. She would just come up and hug you and she would speak to me on the telephone and tell me all sort of tales about her animals.'