Marie-Leonie (her family name has not been released) was the 23-year-old mother whose tale of an anti-Semitic attack on Paris’ RER suburban railway system sent the nation into a paroxysm of guilt and fear.
According to her account to police at the weekend, she was set upon by a gang of six young men of Arab and African origin who took her for a Jew because she was travelling to the rich 16th arrondissement of the capital.
After ripping her clothes and cutting off a length of hair, they reportedly scratched her face with knives and drew swastikas on her body. They also overturned the pram with her 13- month old baby inside, and then robbed her.