Killer truck driver ‘was just a petty criminal’

As forensic scientists searched Lahouaiej-Bouhlel’s apartment in a working-class area of Nice, neighbours said they had little to do with him.

They portrayed him as a solitary figure.

A neighbour said LahouaiejBouhlel had not seemed overtly religious and often wore shorts.

Only one neighbour said she had any concerns about him, describing him as “a goodlooking man who kept giving my two daughters the eye”.

Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was often seen drinking beer and never attended the small mosque near his home, other neighbours said.

“I never saw him at the mosque,” said the caretaker of an apartment building as he sat in a restaurant next to the mosque. Three bearded Muslim men with him agreed — they had never seen the man at the mosque either.

Molins said that although Lahouaiej-Bouhlel had never been investigated, he was known to police.

“He had a police and judicial record for threats, violence, theft and acts of criminal damage between 2010 and 2016, and had been sentenced by the Nice criminal court to a sixmonth term, suspended, in March for violence with arms, committed in January.

“On the other hand, he was totally unknown to intelligence services, nationally and locally, and was never flagged for signs of radicalisation,” he said.

Lahouaiej-Bouhlel’s wife was brought in for questioning on Friday morning, Molins said.

Neighbours said the couple had three children, including a baby, but were separated.

“His wife had asked for a divorce after a violent argument,” said a neighbour.

“He defecated everywhere, he cut up his daughter’s teddy bear. I don’t think there was a radicalisation issue, I think there was a psychiatric problem,” he said.

President François Hollande said the attack was of “an undeniable terrorist nature”.