French serial killer and wife get life sentences

By Thierry Leveque

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.