British dream retirement in southern France ends in brutal murder: woman, 67, was strangled and kicked to death in her new home by neighbor who exploded when she kept asking to borrow some tape

A British pensioner’s dream retirement in a small French hamlet ended in brutal murder after a psychotic neighbor brutally strangled and beat her to death, a court has heard.

Susan Higginbotham, 67, was found dead in September 2021 in her home in Esclottes, a village of just 150 inhabitants about 56 kilometers east of Bordeaux.

She was attacked by her psychotic neighbor, Hichame Bahloul, who has now been sentenced to 30 years in prison.

The Lot-et-Garonne Assize Court heard that Higginbotham had asked Bahloul, 42, for some tape before exploding and attacking her.

He told the court that on the day of the attack he went to her house with a ‘cord’ with which he strangled her before punching and kicking her in the chest.

Before the attack, Bahloul had spent almost half his life in psychiatric care.

But at that time he had already been living with his parents in the same southwestern village of Esclottes for six months.

The three-day trial sought to understand why Bahloul carried out the attack.

‘Is this a crime of significance? Of replacement? Of opportunities?’ the prosecutor asked.

‘The need to attack others has been part of his life for years. During his various hospital admissions, he attacked many people: patients or nursing staff.

“He had fun with it,” the prosecutor added.

As he listened to the prosecutor from a Plexiglas cell in the courtroom, Bahloul gasped before standing up and pounding his fists on the window, the reports said.

However, Bahloul himself admitted assaulting Ms Higginbotham.

‘The story of the tape? It was a pretext to go to her house. I returned to her house with my cord and strangled her,” he said, according to reports in France.

‘We fell, the rope fell. It broke. I took my fists and punched her in the face and kicked her in the chest to make sure she was dead.”

Ms Higginbotham was found by an acquaintance who went to check on her on the morning of September 14, 2021.

She was found lifeless in her home in Esclottes, on the border of the Lot-et-Garonne and Gironde departments.

After initial indications pointed to her death involving a third party, French police launched a major emergency response in the normally peaceful region.

Within a few hours, Bahloul was identified as a suspect. He was arrested at 7.55pm on September 15, 2021, the court was told.

An investigating officer said: ‘We conducted an initial search, then the suspect led investigators to the village, about a hundred meters from Susan Higginbotham’s house, where he hid the victim’s pink wallet.

“He gives us the clothes he wore the day of the incident, covered in blood.”

During the trial, Bahloul said he attacked the British woman because of his annoyance that she had repeatedly asked him for the tape.

The investigator said: ‘He goes to her house, strangles her and lets her go. He returns home, takes a piece of rope from the garden, which he cuts with a knife, but does not take the weapon with him, for fear that she will scream.

‘Susan Higginbotham would not have seen her attacker return a second time, place the link around her neck, before falling to the ground.’

The investigator continued: “He said he knelt on her as she lay on the ground, and punched and kicked her – more than fifteen times – while attacking her head.

“Then (he) put his hand over his nose and mouth. He told us that if she had still been breathing, he would have killed her,” she added.

According to reports in France, Bahloul’s own lawyer, Mr Verdier, has requested that his client receive the maximum sentence.

“I am here to defend my client’s wishes,” Verdier said. ‘The latter is consistent with the report of the expert psychologist: it is necessary that he remains in prison.

“That is why I am asking for the maximum fine that will be imposed.”

Reports indicate that Bahloul was unhappy to be back with his family and carried out the attack as a way to escape his life at home.

The court also heard from a woman called Sharon – a friend of Ms Higginbotham – who had traveled from Britain to provide details of the victim’s character.

Sharon said she hosted her friend at her London apartment for six months in the 2000s, longer than the four weeks they had initially planned.

‘From the moment we met, we became very good friends. By 2005 she had moved to Mansfield and a few years later it was me,” Sharon said.

‘Sue was a very pleasant person, she took care of people a lot and was very open. We had an unforgettable holiday together. She had had a successful career, as a finance director and then as a corporate representative; she had worked very hard.’

She added: ‘She really wanted to be happy in France when she moved in 2016, and I think she was. She lived her dream. She was funny. I miss her very much.’