While justice sentenced Monique Olivier to life imprisonment on December 19, Netflix offered, in March, an edifying documentary series on the Michel Fourniret affair. To catch up.
Nearly twenty years after the arrest of Monique Olivier, accused of complicity in the kidnappings, kidnappings and murders committed by her ex-husband, Michel Fourniret, justice delivered its verdict this Tuesday, December 19.
After a three-week trial, the 75-year-old woman was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment, with a security period of 20 years.
A few months earlier, in March, the Netflix platform dedicated a documentary series of five episodes, The Fourniret Affair: in the head of Monique Olivier.
“I have had some notable cases in my 41-year career, but that of Fourniret goes far beyond all that.“This sentence, uttered by former public prosecutor Francis Nachbar, gives a brief idea of the horror behind one of the most publicized criminal investigations in France.
For 16 years, the man nicknamed “the ogre of the Ardennes” kidnapped, raped and murdered women and young girls. If the murderer, arrested in 2003, ended up confessing to 11 crimes, he remains one of the main suspects in 21 other cases. In 2008, he was sentenced to irreducible life imprisonment.
The Fourniret Affair: in the head of Monique Olivier, work produced by documentary filmmakers Michèle Fines and Christophe Astruc, not only retraces the dramas and the trial that followed, but is particularly interested in the role played by the wife of the criminal.
Presented as a submissive person, mute and under the influence of an executioner, Monique Olivier is quickly considered weak-minded. “We have the impression of dealing with the service noodle”, even says a former police commander in front of the camera.
Netflix
However, this is not the case. The documentary series reveals that numerous tests have demonstrated his significant intelligence quotient, well above average. From then on, the wife becomes an accomplice. “He was the maneuver, she the thinking head”, explains one of the experts interviewed in the documentary.
This true crime offers elaborate staging and reconstructions, like Gregory. Alongside lawyers and psychologists, several relatives of the victims speak out. The documentary is sometimes difficult to watch and hear, especially when Monique Olivier confesses and explains, in detail, the atrocities committed by her companion.
Netflix
The verdict handed down by the courts this Tuesday, December 19 closes one of the most important criminal cases in the history of French justice. The Fourniret affair: in the head of Monique Olivier is available on Netflix.