“Monique Olivier is going to speak”: before the trial of the Estelle Mouzin affair, lawyer Richard Delgenes reveals the challenges of a hearing awaited for years

On Tuesday, November 28, Monique Olivier, the ex-wife of serial killer Michel Fourniret, will appear alone before the Nanterre criminal court. She will be tried for complicity in the arrest, kidnapping and sequestration of minors in three cases. The Joanna Parrish affair (1990), Marie-Angèle Domèce (1988), and Estelle Mouzin (2003).

On the walls of his office in Charleville-Mézières (Ardennes), press articles are framed on the wall. “Devil’s advocate“, can we read among the headlines devoted to the trial which took place in spring 2008 before the Ardennes Assize Court. At the time, lawyer Richard Delgenes was 38 years old and defended Monique Olivier in six cases. She was sentenced to life imprisonment. Since then, Michel Fourniret has died, taking his secrets with him.

This time, before the Hauts-de-Seine Assize Court, Monique Olivier will be alone in the accused box. Michel Fourniret’s ex-wife will appear in three cases of disappearances of young girls.

Marie Angèle Domèce and Joanna Parrish in 1988 and 1990 in the Yonne department, then aged 19 and 21. The third case, the most publicized, concerns Estelle Mouzin. A 9-year-old girl, who disappeared in January 2003 in Guermantes in Seine-et-Marne on her way home from school. It is undoubtedly on this last issue that Monique Olivier is most anticipated.

A few days before the trial, the main question of the victims’ families is the following: will Monique Olivier speak?

” Monique Olivier will speak, as she did in previous trials, as she did before the investigating judge(…). She will respond ” indicates her lawyer Richard Delgenes. The latter also wishes to put an end to rumors about the state of health of his client. “Monique Olivier is doing well. She behaves like a 75 year old woman. She has normal health difficulties, related to her age and incarceration, but she gets around. She has her head, she speaks, she understands, she responds“

The Ardennes lawyer recalls that Monique Olivier is on trial for complicity in Fourniret’s crimes. “I hope that we make the difference between who she is, and who Fourniret was, that we not conflate the two. If we come to portray her like Michel Fourniret it will block her. She has no interest in doing it “With this time, a particularity: Michel Fourniret died in 2021. His client will therefore be alone in the accused box.

According to the lawyer, if the Domèce, Parrish and Mouzin cases can be tried in Nanterre, it is largely thanks to his client’s confessions obtained by investigating judge Sabine Khéris.

He also recalls that the special unit dedicated to unresolved cases continues to work. Thus, there are other files where his client could be involved, such as the Lydie Logé affair, who disappeared in 1993 in Orne. “You have to put yourself in the place of someone who is sentenced to life imprisonment and who would perhaps prefer to end his life without having to talk about all that. I cannot take him on a path of truth or confession if behind it tells me that all that is useless, because behind it we have other matters, it is a much more global vision (…). There is no issue of punishment, She’s going to serve her sentence anyway.”

The trial before the Nanterre Assize Court for the Domèce, Parrish and Mouzin cases is expected to last 3 weeks. The verdict is expected on Friday December 15.