Widow of French ‘Ogre of Ardennes’ is found GUILTY of aiding her serial killer husband murder women including Brit student Joanna Parrish

The widow of the French, the 'Ogre of the Ardennes', has been found guilty of helping the serial killer murder several women, including British student Joanna Parrish.

French Monique Olivier, 75, helped her monstrous husband, the late Michel Fourniret, as he raped and murdered his victims in eastern France between 1987 and 2003.

Olivier faced a second life sentence after being found guilty of 'aiding and abetting' the twisted serial killer for her part in the kidnap, rape and murder of Ms Parrish, 20, in the Burgundian town of Auxerre in 1990 and Marie-Angele Domece, 18, two years earlier.

Olivier was also convicted of complicity in the disappearance of nine-year-old Estelle Mouzin in 2003. The remains of Estelle and Marie-Angele have never been found.

The widow showed no emotion when a court in the Paris suburb of Nanterre delivered its verdict on Tuesday evening after ten hours of deliberation.

It was concluded that Olivier, already serving a life sentence issued in 2008 for her complicity in other murders, was the “perfect accomplice” of Fourniret, who was also sentenced to life in 2008 and died in 2021 at the age of 79.

During a three-week trial, prosecutors outlined Olivier's part in several murders, including that of Leeds University student Joanna Parrish, who was originally from Gloucestershire.

Earlier on Tuesday, Olivier told the Hauts-de-Seine Assize Court: “I ask for forgiveness, knowing that everything I have done is unforgivable.”

Such words were addressed to the victims' families, including Ms. Parrish's now-divorced parents, Pauline Murrell, 75, and Roger Parrish, 80.

Her boyfriend, Patrick Proctor, at the time of her death, was also in court for most of the trial.

They have been fighting for justice since Joanna was lured to her murder in 1990, when she was just 20, and have accused the police and the French justice system of botching the investigation into her death.

Mrs. Parrish was kidnapped by Fourniret and Olivier after she placed an advertisement in a local newspaper offering English lessons. The macabre couple had replied that they were looking for a teacher for their son.

The student's naked corpse was found in the Yonne River near the eastern city of Auxerre, where she worked abroad as a language assistant for a year.

Joanna's father Roger Parrish said that “there was never any doubt in our minds” that Monique Olivier was “equally responsible for the murder of Joanna and the other completely innocent victims” after Olivier was sentenced to life in prison for her complicity in Joanna's murder. the murder.

At a press conference in Nanterre on Tuesday, Mr Parrish asked for a moment to remember all the victims and then said: 'We are satisfied that the court has recognized Monique Olivier's part in the murder of our daughter and sister. She was found guilty on all counts and a verdict was handed down.

'We have never doubted that she was equally responsible for the murder of Joanna and the other completely innocent victims.

“From the first moment a victim was identified, she knew exactly what would happen to them. Not only did she do nothing to help them, but she actively encouraged and participated in both their capture and subsequent murder.

“Her presence alone would have gained the trust of all the victims, who would never have believed that a woman could be part of such a disgusting and depraved act. Her participation in these acts has now been proven beyond doubt.

“Finally, we now hope, after this final obstacle in our struggle to obtain some element of justice for Joanna has been overcome, that we can remember our daughter and sister with a smile on our faces, and that is of course how all her many friends think of her.'

Before his own death in prison in 2021, at the age of 79, Fourniret was charged with the murders of eight girls and young women between 1987 and 2001.

Fourniret was called the 'Ogre of the Ardennes', after the region on the French-Belgian border where he hunted for victims.

Before tonight's verdict, Olivier was already serving a life sentence for complicity in four of the murders and a gang rape committed by Fourniret.

Fourniret and Olivier were initially going to be tried jointly for the three murders, as he had confessed to them in 2018.

But proceedings were delayed by the search for the remains of Marie-Angele and Estelle, who are believed to be buried in the grounds of the couple's Ardennes castle, which they bought with stolen gold dug up from a cemetery .

Olivier regularly found victims for Fourniret because “she liked to do his bidding,” according to prosecutorial evidence.

Attorney General Hugues Julie summarized on Tuesday: 'She was his perfect accomplice. This couple could be the worst serial killers of the past fifty years in France and Belgium.

“Rape and murder were as unimportant to them as going to the supermarket.”

Many of the witnesses who testified were investigators from France and Belgium, where Fourniret was arrested in 2003 after a failed attempt to kidnap a thirteen-year-old girl.

Among them was Sabine Kheris, the investigating magistrate who recorded Fourniret's confession and persuaded Olivier to talk. Ms Kheris now heads a cold cases unit based in Nanterre, which was launched last year.

“We set up the unit because we didn't want to leave parents without answers – that's what it's all about,” Ms Kheris told the Mail.

Ms Kheris believes the true number of Fourniret murders could be as many as 35.

Her cold case unit will investigate some of these cases in hopes of preventing past mistakes.

Stephanie Pottier, another attorney general who prosecuted in Nanterre, said Joanna was deliberately targeted so that she was defiled and then killed.

“Olivier was there to reassure this young woman and get her into the van (which Fourniret used to entrap victims),” Ms Pottier said.

'Her fate was sealed. Joanna Parrish would still be alive if Monique Olivier had not been there the day she was kidnapped.”

Olivier's lawyer, Richard Delgenes, told the jury on Tuesday: 'You will find her guilty because she admits the facts. She will not appeal your decision.

“Today she is on a different path that concerns only her, and on this path she makes choices and chooses to confess.

“I don't think she's two-faced; there is only one Monique Olivier.'

In France, the life sentence is 22 years, but the sentences run concurrently, and – with good behavior – Olivier could technically still be released in 2035, when she will be 86.

The attorneys general also called for Olivier to be deprived of all civil, civil and family rights upon his release for a period of at least ten years.