According to reports, the unnamed schoolgirl had told her father that the slain schoolteacher Samuel Paty- who was beheaded in October- had asked Muslims students to walk out of his class before proceeding to show the caricatures.

The girl had reported the same to her father, who filed a legal complaint against Paty and started a social media campaign.

She has now admitted that she was absent from the class.

"I didn't see the cartoons, it was a girl in my class who showed me them," French media quoted her as saying.

Mbeko Tabula, the girl's lawyer told AFP news that she felt 'trapped'. "She lied because she felt trapped in a spiral because her classmates had asked her to be a spokesperson."

In her original claim, the girl has said that she was suspended from school when she stood up to Paty.

"It now appears that the girl was suspended the day before the class was given, according to Le Parisien newspaper, because of repeated absence from school.According to the girl's leaked confession, she cooked up the story," a BBC report said.

The girl made up the story so as not to disappoint her father, she revealed in her leaked testimony.

Meanwhile, reports said that Paty had asked students to close their eyes if they felt offended by the cartoons. This, reports added, was his usual teaching method.

Following Paty's death, Prosecutors had said that there was a relation between the online campaign and his murder.

Speaking to RTL radio, Virginie Le Roy, Paty's family lawyer said, "So to come and say now, sorry, I believed my daughter's lies, that's really weak."