French serial killer and wife get life sentences

CHARLEVILLE-MEZIERES, France (Reuters) - Self-confessed killer and rapist Michel Fourniret and his wife Monique Olivier were sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday in one of France's grimmest serial murder cases.

The couple showed no reaction after Fourniret, dubbed the "Ogre of the Ardennes" by the media, was found guilty in a packed courtroom of killing seven women and girls aged between 12 and 22 after raping or attempting to rape them.

Some victims were first drugged and bound. Fourniret, who has admitted a fascination for virgins, was arrested in 2003 after a 13-year-old girl escaped from his van and called the police.

The crimes were committed over 14 years from 1987, mostly in the wooded Ardennes region of northern France and in Belgium.

The case helped lead to a shake-up of the way French police investigate serial murders, including the improvement of coordination between different authorities.

Fourniret, 66, will be able to seek a reduced sentence only after serving 30 years in jail. Given his age, he is unlikely to ever walk free.

Olivier, 59, must spend at least 28 years in jail for the part she played in some of the murders and a rape, said the court in northern France.

Described by the chief prosecutor as a "big slimy spider" and "cunning witch" during the trial, Olivier was accused of helping Fourniret select and capture targets and hiding their bodies.

Some parents of the victims, six of whom were French and one Belgian, broke down in tears after the verdict was read, one day after the jury retired to deliberate.

"We will start a new life. It is a relief but there can never be an end," said Jean-Pierre Saison, father of one of the victims. "I cannot look into the future. We need to put things into perspective without Celine."

MISSED CHANCES

The couple, linked by what prosecutors called a "criminal pact", became acquainted after Fourniret placed an advertisement for someone to write to while serving a prison sentence for sex crimes in the 1980s. He has a long history of rape.

A series of opportunities to catch the killers were missed, including the failure to launch an inquiry into the disappearance of the couple's first victim in 1987, Isabelle Laville, despite the police lodging a kidnap report.

At the time, Fourniret, who had just been released from prison and was on probation, was living just a few kilometers away from the place where Laville disappeared.

"There was a lost opportunity to identify the Fournirets," said Alain Behr, a lawyer for Laville's family.

The system also failed to revoke a decision to discharge Fourniret following appearances for offences in the 1990s, allowing the couple to continue carrying out their crimes.

Psychologists who examined the couple have said they were not insane and were slightly above average in intelligence. The specialists concluded that the self-obsessed, authoritative Fourniret took a sadistic pleasure in rape and murder.

In addition to the murders for which he has been sentenced, Fourniret is suspected by police of a number of other killings including that of 20-year-old Briton Joanna Parrish in 1990, raising the specter of further possible trials.

Enquiries should be made into the murder or disappearance of around 10 people to assess possible links to Fourniret, a Belgian police officer told Reuters.

(Writing by Tamora Vidaillet; editing by Andrew Roche)