France - Life imprisonment for ex-wife of serial killer Fourniret
The ex-wife of serial killer Michel Fourniret has been sentenced to life imprisonment in France for her involvement in the deaths of two women and a girl. "I would like to apologize," the 75-year-old said in her last words on Tuesday, as reported by BFMTV from the court in Nanterre near Paris. The court's sentence was in line with the prosecution's demand; the defense had pleaded for a guilty verdict and a severe sentence.
Fourniret, who died in 2021, and his ex-wife had already been sentenced to life imprisonment in 2008. Fourniret, dubbed the "Monster of the Ardennes" by the media, abducted, raped and murdered seven young girls and women in France and Belgium. Investigators assume that the number of his victims is significantly higher. His former wife Monique Olivier helped him. The current trial dealt with three other cases for which the judiciary holds the couple responsible.
"I confess to all three cases that I am accused of", Olivier surprisingly testified in court. The 18 and 20-year-old women disappeared in 1988 and 1990, the nine-year-old girl in 2003. Only the body of a British language assistant who disappeared in 1990 was later discovered. Olivier did not give any precise details about the whereabouts of the other two victims, despite being asked by the court.
Citing memory lapses
Much to the annoyance and distress of relatives appearing in court, Olivier often referred to memory lapses during the three-week trial, even when it came to details of the course of events. In particular, she failed to give a convincing answer to the question as to why she had not intervened before the impending murders of the young women who had been abducted.
The cases now being heard were the alleged third, seventh, eleventh and final murders of Fourniret and his ex-wife. The two are therefore considered the most murderous couple in French legal history. They separated while in custody. The cases were finally brought to court following investigations by a "cold case" unit for crimes committed long ago.
Fourniret's monstrous series of murders came to light when he was arrested in Belgium in June 2003 after attempting to abduct a 13-year-old girl. Fourniret had been sentenced to seven years in prison in France in the 1980s for raping underage girls, but was released after just two years.
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- Despite being in custody, Fourniret's ex-wife Monique Olivier and he separated.
- Monique Olivier, from Nanterre, France, was involved in the deaths of three women and a girl, including a 20-year-old in 1990.
- Michel Fourniret, a serial killer from Belgium, had previously been sentenced to life imprisonment in France in 2008, along with his ex-wife, Olivier.
- The whereabouts of two of the women who disappeared in 1988 and 1990 remain unknown, despite Olivier's testimony in court.
- Fourniret, dubbed the "Monster of the Ardennes," had a history of criminality, including a rape conviction in France in the 1980s.
- The French judicial system has considered four additional cases in which the couple, Olivier and Fourniret, are accused of involvement in murders.
Source: www.stern.de
