WAS NICE KILLER A SEX MANIAC?

Attacker’s interest in jihad a recent change

PARIS • Police in Nice have questioned a 73-year-old man described as the Bastille Day killer’s “main lover” as investigators described him as a “sex maniac” and “ultraviolent sadist,” according to French reports.

The information came amid revelations that Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel had displayed a “clear, recent interest in the radical jihadist movement,” growing a beard only in the last eight days after a previous life drinking alcohol and eating pork.

Francois Molins, the French prosecutor, said the Tunisian, who killed 84 people when he plowed into crowds on Nice’s Promenade des Anglais last Thursday, had searched on the Internet for information on terror attacks in Orlando, Fla., and the Paris suburb of Magnanville, where two police officers were murdered last month.

Recent cellphone and computer searches included images “linked to radical Islam” — from decapitations to chants. He had also done searches on road deaths with the proviso “sensitive viewers abstain” and one on a recent article in the Nice-Matin newspaper about a motorist who “deliberately mowed into a restaurant terrace.”

Molins confirmed that the murderous act was clearly premeditated, as Bouhlel had visited the Promenade des Anglais in his truck in the two days leading up to the attack, taking photos.

Dubbed a “soldier of Islam” by ISIL, Bouhlel’s cellphone suggests he often used dating sites to pick up male and female lovers. Police have already questioned several of these since the deadly attack, in particular, according to Le Parisien, a 73-year old man, which a source close to the investigation described as “his main lover.”

In Tunisia, Bouhlel’s uncle said his nephew was indoctrinated about two weeks ago by an Algerian member of ISIL in Nice.

Sadok Bouhlel told The Associated Press that given Bouhlel’s family problems — he was estranged from his wife and three children — the Algerian extremist “found in Mohamed an easy prey for recruitment.”

“Mohamed didn’t pray, didn’t go to the mosque and ate pork,” said the uncle, a 69-year-old retired teacher, in the driver’s hometown of Msaken, Tunisia.

He said he is devastated by his nephew’s act, and doesn’t want him buried in Msaken.

“He made more than 80 families grieve, and stained the reputation of our town and our country,” he said.