Trial Starts for French 'Virgin Killer'

Husband-wife hunting team accused of seven murders

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Mar 27, 2008 5:41 AM CDT

(Newser) – A French carpenter dubbed the "Ogre of the Ardennes" is on trial in France, accused of tracking down, raping and murdering seven virgins with the help of his wife in one of the nation's worst murder sprees in decades. Prosecutors say Michel Fourniret hunted victims from 1987 until 2003, the BBC reports. The victims ranged in age from 12 to 22 years old.

Investigators say the convicted pedophile lured his victims by asking them for directions, then persuading them to get into his car. The presence of his wife was meant to reassure them. Fourniret met his wife when she was a volunteer at a prison. He agreed to kill her husband if she would aid him in his deadly hunts, cops said. Fourniret was busted in 2003 after an attempted kidnapping of a Belgium teen, who will soon testify. He is suspected of at least ten other murders.

[Images (4)]

[Videos (1)]

A police officer stands in the special courtroom where French serial killer Michel Fourniret will go on trial, in Charleville-Mezieres, northern France, Wednesday March 26, 2008. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler)

Michel Fourniret arrives at Court in Dinant, Belgium, in this 2004 file photo. Fourniret, self-confessed serial killer who is suspected of murdering 19 people, is now on trial. (AP Photo/Bruno Arnold, ASAP pictures, File)

Francis Brichet, the father of Elisabeth, one of the victims of French serial killer Michel Fourniret, speaks outside a courthouse in northern France, Wednesday March 26, 2008. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler)

Jean-Pierre Laville, the father of Isabelle, one of the victims of French serial killer Michel Fourniret, arrives at the courthouse of Charleville-Mezieres, northern France, Wednesday March 26, 2008. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler)

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Trial Starts for French 'Virgin Killer'