The trial of the accused serial killer Mr Pierre Chanal opened in Reims yesterday without the presence of the defendant, who is in a coma following his attempted suicide on Monday. Lara Marlowe reports from Reims.
Mr Chanal (56), a former French army warrant officer, is charged with murdering Irishman Trevor O'Keeffe and Frenchmen Patrice Denis and Patrick Gache. He is also suspected of being responsible for the disappearance of five French army conscripts in the early 1980s.
The opening of the trial saw the contents of Mr Chanal's van and apartment spread out in plastic bags, each sealed with red wax, on the table in front of Judge Christine Simon-Rossenthal.
On an audio-cassette recording, a man is heard panting as Mr Chanal simulates the capture of a military sentinel. In French army commando training courses, the accused learned to "neutralise" guards and bury corpses in shallow graves such as the one he allegedly dug for Mr O'Keeffe, whose body was found 90 km from Reims in August 1987. The labels on packets, including two vials of earth from Mr O'Keeffe's grave, are now yellow with age.
One of the plastic envelopes held the vibrator, in the shape of a man's sexual organs, that Mr Chanal used to rape a Hungarian student in 1988. Others contained the khaki straps with which Mr Chanal is alleged to have used to bind his prey, and the white nylon cord with chains and clips at both ends, which he is alleged to have rigged to choke his victim if he resisted sexual assault.
Mr Chanal's road map of France lay among the parcels. Former conscripts from the army base at Mourmelon, where Mr Chanal served, told investigators he used to detain conscripts so they missed their bus to the train station, then follow them in his van. He was often seen driving along back roads, apparently looking for passengers.
Relatives of the eight young men who disappeared between 1980 and 1987, all while hitch-hiking in the Champagne region, were in the assize court for the opening session.
"If you see Mr Chanal in the next few days . . . " said Mr Eric Dupond-Moretti, the lawyer for the O'Keeffe family, to Mr Chanal's lawyer in court yesterday" . . . tell him we don't want his death. All we want is an ounce of truth." Mr Chanal has always claimed ignorance of the eight "Mourmelon Triangle" deaths.
Judge Simon-Rossenthal said Mr Chanal will be remanded in custody as soon as he regains consciousness. His trial will resume on May 19th, in his presence, on condition that psychiatrists agree. "It was a wise decision," said Mrs Eroline O'Keeffe, the mother of the dead Irishman. "I'm delighted." The families of Mr Chanal's alleged victims greeted each other sadly. "Mrs O'Keeffe? I'm Patrice Denis's mother," a woman said as she turned to shake hands. Relatives of Patrick Dubois, who vanished from Mourmelon 23 years ago, sat nearby.
Murder charges have been dropped in five of the eight cases for lack of evidence, to the consternation of parents and siblings. "All we want is for them to tell us where our children's bodies are," said Mr Dubois's father, Raymond. Only two bodies, those of Trevor O'Keeffe and a conscript named Olivier Donner, were found.
Mr Michel Lente, an employee at a Smurfit paper factory, was among those summoned as witnesses. It was Mr Lente who discovered Mr O'Keeffe's body in 1987. "There was bare earth among the weeds. I saw his hair sticking out," said Mr Lente, his voice cracking. "I still think about it every time I go into my woods." For 16 years, Mrs O'Keeffe has received the constant moral support of her sister, Mrs Noeleen Slattery, who has accompanied her on dozens of trips to France. "I probably wouldn't have got this far without her," Mrs O'Keeffe said. In November 2000, tragedy struck a second time, when Mrs Slattery's daughter, Caroline, died in mysterious circumstances, also in France. Her case too moves at glacial speed. Earlier this year, Mrs O'Keeffe's and Mrs Slattery's brother Val and sister Daphne both died of cancer.
Mrs O'Keeffe and Mrs Slattery have received little sympathy from Irish authorities. The Irish Embassy has sent no one to attend the trial, although Mr Chanal has been the chief suspect in Mr O'Keeffe's murder for more than a decade.
"The Department of Foreign Affairs wrote to me in 1994 withdrawing their support," Mrs O'Keeffe said. "I guess they were sick of me phoning." The Irish Embassy helped to repatriate Trevor O'Keeffe's body in 1987, and provided interpreters on one or two occasions in the early 1990s. French authorities, including a judge whom Mrs O'Keeffe had removed from the case because he lied to her, have performed no better. "The French police told us to give up," Mrs Slattery said yesterday. Had she taken their advice, the trial would never have started.