PARIS: The former wife of French serial killer Michel Fourniret expressed regret on the final day of her trial Tuesday for her role in the murders he committed, asking the families of the victims to forgive her.
Monique Olivier is on trial in France for complicity in three of killings committed by Fourniret, including that of British student Joanna Parrish.
“I ask for forgiveness,“ Olivier said. “Although I know that what I did is unforgivable.”
On Monday, prosecutors in the trial said they were seeking life in prison for Olivier, without possibility of parole for at least 22 years.
Fourniret died in 2021 aged 79 before he could be brought to trial for the three killings.
He confessed to 11 murders before he died, but reports have suggested there could have been many -- perhaps two dozen -- more.
Olivier is already serving a life sentence issued in 2008 for complicity in four kidnappings and murders committed by her husband. A decade later she was sentenced to a further 20 years for complicity in another murder.
The current trial concerns her part in the abduction, rape and murder of 20-year-old Parrish in 1990 and 18-year-old Marie-Angele Domece in 1988.
Olivier is also charged with complicity in the disappearance of nine-year-old Estelle Mouzin in 2003, whose body has never been found two decades on despite intensive searches.
The verdict in the case is scheduled for later Tuesday. -AFP
