Fourniret admits to two more murders

1 July 2004

BRUSSELS – Michel Fourniret, the French forestry worker who has already told Belgian police he murdered six girls, late on Thursday confessed to another two killings.

Fourniret, who has already been dubbed the ‘new Dutroux’ because his crimes came to light just a week after Belgium’s most notoriuos child killer was jailed for life, told French police he had murdered 18-year-old Celine Saison and 13-year-old Manyana Thumpong.

“He has just given the names of Celine and Mayana,” a French investigator told French news agency AFP on Thursday evening.

The two girls went missing in France in 2000 and 2001 and thier corpses were found in Belgium.

Fourniret has been in custody in Belgium since last year.

He lives in the country and was arrested in June 2003 after he tried and failed to abduct a 14 year old girl in the Belgian town of Ciney.

But French police were questioning him on Thursday because he was also suspected of committing crimes in France.

The two new confessions mean Fourniret has now admitted killing eight girls.

But many investigators belive he may have murdered around a dozen victims.

He has already been charged with a ninth murder, that of his former au pair although he has denied the charge.

Forniret’s former wife this week told police that her ex-husband had killed nine girls between 1987 and 2001.

French prosecutors have also said Fourniret has confessed to shooting a driver at a motorway service staion in France’s Burgundy region “because he needed money”.

In addition, say French police, has admitted to murdering the girlfriend of a man he claimed was a member of French far left extremist group Action Directe, in order to get his hands on the group’s “war chest”.

It was not clear on Thursday whether she was one of the six young women Fourniret initially said he murdered or an additional victim.

Subject: Belgian news