INTERVIEW
The announcement of his lawyer, Pierre Alfort, raises many reactions: after 22 years of detention - the duration of his period of safety -, the serial killer Patrice Alègre, sentenced to life imprisonment in 2002 after five years of pre-trial detention, will file an application for parole. Interviewed by Europe 1, Stéphane Bourgoin, a writer specializing in the study of serial killers, believes at the microphone of Wendy Bouchard that the risk of re-offending must be taken into account by the courts.
Although the filing of this application in early September respects the procedure, Stéphane Bourgoin "strongly doubts that an individual as dangerous as Patrice Alègre can be released". After conducting interviews with 77 serial killers, the writer defends a clear position: "Almost all of them told me that if they were released one day, they would start killing again." Asked about the recent release of Jean-Claude Romand, author of a five-fold murder on his children, his wife and his parents in 1993, the specialist establishes a differentiation, saying that this is a "crime of mass ":" this is not a serial killer ".
"Judiciary has evolved"
"But the criminal history shows us that serial killers, both in France and abroad, when they were released, sometimes for reasons of procedural defect for that matter, have almost 98% , always recidivated ", supports Stéphane Bourgoin. "For some time, the judicial mindset has evolved," says the writer. "Recently, in 2008, Michel Fourniret (sentenced for the murder of eight women and adolescent girls, ed ) has been fired for life and will never be released from prison, for example."