Nice killer Mohamed Bouhel sent chilling text messages just before deadly attack

THE mobile phone belonging to the gunman behind the Nice terror attack revealed his “busy sex life”, and a chilling history showing photos of executions.

People gather at a makeshift memorial placed on the road for victims of the deadly Bastille Day attack, which killed 84. Picture: AFP/Anne-Christine Poujoulat

THE mobile phone belonging to the gunman behind the Nice terror attack revealed his “busy sex life”, and a chilling history showing photos of executions.

According to the Telegraph UK, French media sources said Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel’s mobile phone records suggest he used dating websites to try and pick up men and women.

Police officers investigating the terror attack are finding the phone contains crucial data including

text messages, videos and photographs, including ones of men and women he had been in a relationship with.

“The testimony which investigators are relying on most is that of the mobile phone,” reported the BFM TV news channel.

Bouhlel loved sending selfie photos, and would record all of his relationships on his phone.

BFM TV also reports he visited gyms and salsa bars, and would visit websites “showing pictures of executions”.

“The busy sex life of a man who had recently discovered a religious faith is shown by the data on the device,” BFM TV reported.

Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel reportedly sent text messages prior to carrying out an attack that killed 84. Picture: Supplied

The news comes as text messages sent from his phone also revealed Bouhlel’s plot to kill innocent people before he ploughed a truck into a crowd.

One reportedly read: “Bring more weapons. Bringing in 5,” according to judicial sources quoted by French TV.

An earlier text reportedly read: “It’s good. I have the equipment.”

Lahouaiej-Bouhlel also wrote of his “satisfaction at having obtained a 7.65mm pistol” and discussed the supply of other weapons, a police source confirmed to the news agency AFP.

A pistol, two replica assault rifles and a dummy grenade were found in the truck

The apartment of Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel is photographed through a hole in the wall made by police, in Nice, southern France. Picture: AP

They were sent from the mobile found in the truck’s cabin, along with the killer’s driver’s licence and bank card, after police shot him dead.

The text was reportedly sent at 10.27pm to one of the men now in custody following the police swoop on the killer’s friends and “entourage”. It ended, “Bringing in five to C”.

It now appears that at least one of his messages was sent to another also in custody.

It has also emerged that the police officers who confronted Lahouaiej-Bouhlel in Nice pumped around 20 rounds of ammunition into his truck in the shootout that ended his bloody Bastille Day rampage.

Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, the man who rammed his truck into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in Nice. Picture: AFP

A lawyer for his estranged wife said she was no longer in touch with her husband.

Jean-Yves Garino told BFM-TV that the woman, who is the mother of Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel’s three children, had been physically abused by her husband, and eventually threw him out of the house.

Garino said “it was hard, but she did it,” adding, “she was no longer in contact with him.” He said Bouhlel also was violent with the rest of the family, including the woman’s mother.

The woman was detained Friday and released from custody earlier Sunday. Six people are still being detained.

Meantime, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop the attack showed “how low key these things can be” and how they can occur under the radar of intelligence agencies.

Asked about the upcoming Fromelles and Pozières commemorative service, Ms Bishop urged travellers to be careful.

“We urge them to take out travel insurance,” she told Nine.

People gather near flowers placed at a makeshift memorial near the Promenade des Anglais in Nice. Picture: AFP

“We urge them to exercise the highest degree of caution.

“Ultimately it’s the decision for them whether to travel.

“I do point out that in France we are urging people to exercise a high degree of caution.

“We will do what we can, obviously our consular officials our embassy is working over time.

“These are very challenging times.

“People need to think very seriously about travelling overseas.”

In an affidavit, an officer who was among three stationed at the end of the famed Promenade des Anglais described Thursday’s bloody confrontation with Lahouaiej-Bouhlel.

“He was at a halt, the front of the vehicle had been completely torn off, the engine was visible,” the officer said in his affidavit.

In nightmarish scenes, bodies lay crumpled behind the vehicle while others lay crushed beneath its wheels.

The police could hear people weeping and crying for help as others scrambled for safety.

“At first I didn’t understand what was happening,” the officer said. “People were running in every direction.”

The officer then spoke about coming “almost face-to-face” with the killer, before another officer on the street then fired two more shots before seeing the driver’s head “slump back onto the window, on the passenger side”.