“I don't think Michel Fourniret is a pedophile”: Former investigators expressed skepticism on Friday about the involvement of the “Ogre of the Ardennes” and his ex-wife Monique Olivier in the disappearance of Estelle Mouzin, arousing the ire of civilian parties, who denounced “judicial revisionism”.
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The first investigator to testify, Philippe G., told the Hauts-de-Seine assize court, which has been trying Monique Olivier since November 28 for complicity in the kidnapping, confiscation and murder of the little girl, “still has doubts “. “about the couple’s involvement in this crime.
AFP
He assures us: the trail of Michel Fourniret, “serial killer with a rare and worrying profile, the worst in France in 40 years,” was investigated by the Versailles criminal police and “considered a priority.”
However, according to the police official, investigators did not receive “sufficient evidence” to suspect him.
Doubt
One of his arguments: It was snowing that day, January 9, 2003, and the traffic conditions were too difficult to get out of the Ardennes.
Furthermore, it took him two and a half hours to travel by car from Versailles to Guermantes himself on Friday 10 January 2003, when he had to go to this village in Seine-et-Marne after the PJ was closed due to the investigation Day after Estelle's disappearance.
AFP
Philippe G. does not dispute the alibi of Michel Fourniret, a call from the landline of his home in Sart-Custinne in Belgium to that of his eldest son, whose birthday was that day. However, he adds that it is difficult to know who actually made the call.
The head of the investigation at the time, Stéfanie Duchâtel, assured that investigators were “committed to believing” that Michel Fourniret made that call “because Monique Olivier, who was questioned about that call, “continues to say that she did not pass it on.” Location” of her husband: “We have no means to counter this argument.”
Michel Fourniret was charged in this case in November 2019 after Monique Olivier contradicted the serial killer's alibi for the day of Estelle's disappearance to the investigating judge Sabine Kheris.
He then admitted his responsibility in the case to the judge in March 2020: “I recognize a being there that is no longer there because of me,” he explains.
“We would not be here if the PJ of Versailles had continued to pursue this case, you would have had convictions, you would have tried to abolish the investigation,” criticized Me Didier Seban, lawyer for the civil parties, sharply.
Ms. Kheris had taken the Fourniret leadership from the Versailles investigators in the investigation against Estelle Mouzin and handed it over to the gendarmes of the Dijon research department in 2019.
“Judicial revisionism”
In view of the theses of the two investigators, Me Seban denounced “judicial revisionism” after a tense exchange with this former member of the PJ of Versailles.
Philippe G. claimed that the serial killer preferred “pubescent girls, not pre-pubescent girls” and that he did not believe “that Michel Fourniret is a pedophile.”
Corinne Herrmann vividly reminded him of the age of some of the serial killer's victims, particularly Elisabeth Brichet, who was kidnapped, raped and killed at the age of 12.
In 1967, Michel Fourniret was convicted of sexually assaulting seven-year-old girls in Sedan.
The couple's confessions? For Philippe G., the duo has “lies and manipulation in their DNA” anyway.
“Fibs that we couldn’t dispel until Monique Olivier admitted the facts,” adds Ms. Duchâtel.
However, on Tuesday evening, Sabine Kheris described Monique Olivier as “unfathomable” but “credible” in her statements, even though she only gradually made confessions during the interrogations.