Widow of French ‘Ogre of Ardennes’ serial killer begs for ‘forgiveness’ in French court as she faces life sentence for helping her husband murder women including Brit student Joanna Parrish

The former wife of French serial killer Michel Fourniret expressed remorse for her role in the murders he committed on Tuesday on the final day of her trial and begged the victims' families to forgive her.

“I ask for forgiveness,” Monique Olivier said on the last day of her trial for complicity in three murders committed by Fourniret, including that of British student Joanna Parrish. “Although I know what I did is unforgivable,” she added.

Olivier is on trial in France for complicity in three murders committed by Fourniret, including that of British student Joanna Parrish.

On Monday, prosecutors said in the trial they were seeking life in prison for Olivier, without the possibility of parole for at least 22 years.

Fourniret died in 2021 at the age of 79 in a secure ward of a Paris hospital, meaning he never stood trial for the murders of Parrish, as well as nine-year-old Estelle Mouzin and 18-year-old Marie-Angele Domece .

Monique Olivier, ex-wife of serial killer Michel Fourniret, sits in court during her trial at the assize court in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris, on November 28, 2023

Monique Olivier (left), ex-wife of serial killer Michel Fourniret, sits in court on November 28 for her trial at the assize court in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris.

He confessed to eleven murders before he died, but reports suggest there could have been many more, perhaps as many as twenty.

Olivier, who divorced Fourniret in 2010, accused him of several other murders in which he was suspected of being involved.

She is already serving a life sentence imposed in 2008 for complicity in four kidnappings and murders committed by her husband.

Ten years later, she was sentenced to another twenty years for complicity in another murder.

Michel Fourniret (seen in 2008), nicknamed the 'Ogre of the Ardennes' after the region on the border between France and Belgium where victims were claimed – died in 2021 at the age of 79 before he could be tried for the three murders, despite that he confessed to all three

Olivier is on trial for her role in the kidnapping, rape and murder of Joanna Parrish (seen right) in 1990 and 18-year-old Marie-Angele Domece in 1988

The current trial concerns her role in the kidnapping, rape and murder of 20-year-old Parrish in 1990 and 18-year-old Marie-Angele Domece in 1988.

Olivier is also accused of complicity in the 2003 disappearance of nine-year-old Mouzin, whose body was never found despite intensive searches twenty years later.

The verdict in the case will be announced later on Tuesday.