United Kingdom man faces French trial for trying to save migrant girl

Former British soldier Rob Lawrie, 49, met four-year-old Bahar Ahmadi and her father while he was helping build shelters and delivering supplies for refugees in the camp, which has been dubbed “the Jungle”, last year.

The young girl and her family accompanied him to a packed hearing at the Tribunal de Grande Instance court in Boulogne on Thursday, after appearing with him at an earlier press conference in the town.

Mr Lawrie said: “I am preparing myself for the worst and hoping for the best”.

“I am sorry, I regret it. I wouldn’t do it again”.

He said: “We will look back on modern history and say oh my God, we let kids live in refugee camps and not go to school”.

On Oct. 24, the father of four hid Bahar in a storage compartment above the cabin of his truck, where he had set up a bed.

“She’s a special little girl”, he told Reuters in Britain while awaiting trial. He became so involved that his wife has since left him.

Thousands of people have expressed their support for Lawrie and signed two online petitions urging the British government to ask the French authorities to drop the charges.

Asked before the trial how he would react if sent to jail, Lawrie replied: “If I go to jail today…”

Lawrie, who has been volunteering with migrants in Calais, was caught in October trying to take the girl to relatives in Britain, at her father’s request.

Speaking previously to Sky News, Mr Lawrie said: “The conditions at the camp were horrendous and I knew she shouldn’t be living like that”. The girl’s father begged the former solider to bring her to the United Kingdom so she could reunify with her family already in the country. “But half past 10 one rainy night, when she fell asleep on my knee as I was leaving for the ferry, I just couldn’t leave her there anymore”.

He said he had started raising money and travelling to the Jungle with aid after seeing the images of three-year-old Syrian refugee Alan Kurdi, who drowned in the Mediterranean in September. “I estimate her life was in danger” in the small closed cache, the prosecutor said. “My brother also committed suicide”.

“It was a very stupid decision”, he told the court.