"Bring back the guillotine" say parents of British woman murdered in France 30 years ago
- 5 months ago
The parents of a British woman murdered in France more than 30 years said they wish the guillotine had brought back for the 'evil' couple responsible.
Joanna Parrish, 20, was working as a teaching assistant at a school in France when she placed an advert offering English lessons in a local newspaper.
Michel Fourniret, dubbed the 'Ogre of the Ardennes' and regarded as one of France's worst serial killers, responded to the advert in May 1990 and the pair met.
Joanna, from Newnham-on-Severn, Glos., was never seen alive again and her body was discovered in the River Yonne, near Auxerre, France the following day.
Fourniret confessed to murdering 11 females - including Joanna - but died in 2021 before he could stand trial.
At the time he was serving a life sentence for the murders of seven girls and young women - and died in 2021.
But after his ex-wife Monique Olivier, now 75, was given a second life term this week for her role in the murders, Joanna's parents said they felt some 'relief' at the verdict - but held nothing but hatred for her killers.
Her mum Pauline Murrell said: "It really wasn't necessary for all those other girls to die. I really wish they still had hanging, actually… I thought a guillotine would be ideal.
"That's what I kept looking at her (Olivier) and thinking. I'd guillotine you and I'd sit there with my knitting and watch."
Olivier was charged with complicity in Joanna's murder, as well as complicity in the murder of 18-year-old Marie-Angèle Domèce in 1988.
She was also accused of the kidnap of nine-year-old Estelle Mouzin, whose body has never been found.
The couple said that although Fourniret wasn't alive to be held accountable for their daughter's murder - they were relieved he was no longer able to hurt anyone else.
Pauline added: "I think I feel mainly that, thank God, he's not around to kill anybody else.
"She won't be around, but I just can't help but think that if the police at the beginning, the gens d'armes, had at the beginning done their job properly, then a lot of other girls would still be alive - because he would have been caught.
"But, I don't know why they didn't, they just were completely inadequate. That's my main feeling; it wasn't necessary."
Dad Roger Parrish added: "I think I would have wanted to have faced him in court, but frankly, I don't really think that would have made any difference to him anyway, knowing the kind of person that he was, a psychopath… a completely narcissistic psychopath, who only thought of himself.
"I would have wanted to have been there when he was still alive. But he's dead now and the world's a better place for it."
Before the jury retired to consider their verdicts, Olivier said: "I regret everything I did and I ask for forgiveness from the families of the victims, while knowing that it is unforgivable."
Joanna Parrish, 20, was working as a teaching assistant at a school in France when she placed an advert offering English lessons in a local newspaper.
Michel Fourniret, dubbed the 'Ogre of the Ardennes' and regarded as one of France's worst serial killers, responded to the advert in May 1990 and the pair met.
Joanna, from Newnham-on-Severn, Glos., was never seen alive again and her body was discovered in the River Yonne, near Auxerre, France the following day.
Fourniret confessed to murdering 11 females - including Joanna - but died in 2021 before he could stand trial.
At the time he was serving a life sentence for the murders of seven girls and young women - and died in 2021.
But after his ex-wife Monique Olivier, now 75, was given a second life term this week for her role in the murders, Joanna's parents said they felt some 'relief' at the verdict - but held nothing but hatred for her killers.
Her mum Pauline Murrell said: "It really wasn't necessary for all those other girls to die. I really wish they still had hanging, actually… I thought a guillotine would be ideal.
"That's what I kept looking at her (Olivier) and thinking. I'd guillotine you and I'd sit there with my knitting and watch."
Olivier was charged with complicity in Joanna's murder, as well as complicity in the murder of 18-year-old Marie-Angèle Domèce in 1988.
She was also accused of the kidnap of nine-year-old Estelle Mouzin, whose body has never been found.
The couple said that although Fourniret wasn't alive to be held accountable for their daughter's murder - they were relieved he was no longer able to hurt anyone else.
Pauline added: "I think I feel mainly that, thank God, he's not around to kill anybody else.
"She won't be around, but I just can't help but think that if the police at the beginning, the gens d'armes, had at the beginning done their job properly, then a lot of other girls would still be alive - because he would have been caught.
"But, I don't know why they didn't, they just were completely inadequate. That's my main feeling; it wasn't necessary."
Dad Roger Parrish added: "I think I would have wanted to have faced him in court, but frankly, I don't really think that would have made any difference to him anyway, knowing the kind of person that he was, a psychopath… a completely narcissistic psychopath, who only thought of himself.
"I would have wanted to have been there when he was still alive. But he's dead now and the world's a better place for it."
Before the jury retired to consider their verdicts, Olivier said: "I regret everything I did and I ask for forgiveness from the families of the victims, while knowing that it is unforgivable."