- Charles Sobhraj, 79, is believed to have murdered at least 20 backpackers
A hippie trail killer called The Serpent could be put back behind bars by British detectives in an investigation.
Charles Sobhraj, 79, is believed to have murdered at least 20 young Western backpackers in the 1970s, but he was only tried and convicted of the murders of two.
He was released from prison in Nepal in 2022 and moved back to France.
Now ex-police commander Gary Copson and DCI Jackie Malton have pieced together evidence linking Sobhraj to the deaths of two young Dutch tourists whose charred bodies were found roadside in Thailand in 1975.
They have handed over their file to the Dutch police and say that the Netherlands can try Sobhraj because there is no statute of limitations.
Charles Sobhraj, 79, known as ‘The Serpent’, is believed to have murdered at least twenty young Western backpackers in the 1970s, but was only tried and convicted of the murders of two
Sobhraj inspired one of the BBC’s most-watched dramas in 2021, The Serpent, starring Tahar Rahim as the killer and Jenna Coleman as his accomplice.
Mr Copson and Ms Malton’s investigation – the inspiration for ITV drama Prime Suspect’s DCI Jane Tennison – will be revealed in a Channel 4 documentary, The Real Serpent: Investigating a Serial Killer, on Thursday.
Sobhraj, nicknamed The Serpent for his ability to escape justice, is said to have once confessed to killing Dutch backpackers, Henricus Bitanja, 29, and fiancée Cornelia Hemker, 25.
Mr Copson will tell viewers: ‘The Dutch can pursue the murder of Dutch citizens anywhere in the world. The murders of Cornelia and Henricus are horrific, so they can bring the murders committed in Thailand to justice. This feels really important to me, so I’m not just proposing that we should do this, but that we should do this.”
Sobhraj, along with eight others, is said to have confessed to their murders in a 1981 book by Julie Clarke and Richard Neville, but he later recanted.
He would befriend his victims on the hippie trail in Asia and then drug, rob and murder them, even using their names and passports to travel to other countries and commit more crimes.
VICTIMS: Sobhraj is said to have once known Dutch backpackers, Henricus Bitanja, 29, and fiancée Cornelia Hemker, 25, whose bodies were found burned
Mr Copson and Ms Malton tracked down tapes recorded by Ms Clarke and Mr Neville, from Sobhraj, in which they admitted the murders and laughed: ‘I hope this won’t hang me one day.’
They also discovered evidence of Cornelia’s belongings in his apartment, including her diary. Sobhraj’s former neighbor, Nadine Gires, says she saw the Dutch couple in the flat, and later snuck inside and found diarrhea medicine laced with strychnine.
When Sobhraj was questioned by Mr Copson and Ms Malton about their findings, he threatened to ‘file a defamation case’, adding: ‘We will meet in court.’
He was jailed in India in 1976 for drugging and robbing tourists, but was released in 1997 and flew to France.
He traveled to Nepal in 2003 and was arrested, tried and imprisoned for the 1975 murders of American Connie Jo Bronzich and her Canadian boyfriend Laurent Carriere. Due to his age, he was released by Nepal in 2022.