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The ex-wife of serial killer Michel Fourniret (left) in the courtroom of the district court in Nanterre
Photo: Miguel Medina / dpa
Without them, the serial killer Michel Fourniret would not have been able to lure, rape and kill his victims so easily: Monique Olivier, the long-time wife of the "Ardennes monster", was again sentenced to life imprisonment after more than ten hours of court deliberations for aiding and abetting kidnapping and murder in three cases. The victims were nine, 18 and 20 years old.
"I would like to apologize," the 75-year-old had previously said in her last words, as reported by the broadcaster BFMTV from the court in Nanterre near Paris. The court complied with the prosecution's request with the sentence, the defense had pleaded for a guilty verdict and a severe sentence.
Fourniret, who died in 2021, as well as his ex-wife, had already been sentenced to life imprisonment in 2008. Fourniret, nicknamed the "Monster of the Ardennes" by the media, had kidnapped, raped and murdered seven young girls and women in France and Belgium. His former wife, Monique Olivier, helped him with this. The current trial was about three other cases for which the judiciary holds the couple responsible.
"I'm sorry for everything I've done," the 75-year-old said before the verdict was announced. Olivier had filed for divorce in 2008 after the couple was sentenced to life imprisonment.
The judges also imposed 20 years of preventive detention. Olivier had made her husband's crimes possible in the first place, the prosecution had emphasized in its plea.
"I confess to all three cases of which I am accused," Olivier had 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 voice assistant who disappeared in 1990 was later discovered. As for the whereabouts of the other two victims, Olivier did not give any precise information in court.
The prosecution accused the 75-year-old of instilling trust in the girls, even though she knew they would be murdered. Thus, when Olivier was seven months pregnant, she accompanied her husband in the car so that his victims would not become suspicious and let themselves be lured into the car. "Without them, (Fourniret) would not have been able to commit his crimes," said prosecutor Hugues Julié.
lpz/AFP/dpa