CHARLEVILLE-MEZIERES, France: Self-confessed serial killer Michel Fourniret went on trial in France on Thursday, accused of the rape and murder of seven young women.

Fourniret, a 65-year-old electrician, has admitted to enlisting his wife Monique Olivier as an accomplice to lure women and teenage girls who were raped and murdered, according to prosecutors.

Olivier, 59, is on trial for one of the murders and complicity in four other crimes.

The defendants arrived early Thursday at the courthouse in the French town of Charleville-Mezieres near the Belgian border in two separate cars, under heavy police escort.

Dubbed the "Ogre of the Ardennes", Fourniret has admitted that he needed to go hunting for a virgin at least twice a year, prosecutors said, adding that he was obsessed with virginity.

He is accused of raping and murdering six young women in France and one in Belgium between 1987 and 2001.

Prosecutors say Fourniret made a pact with Olivier while serving a jail sentence for sexual assault that she would find him virgins after his release if he killed her ex-husband.

The couple's killing spree came to an end in 2003 when a 13-year-old girl Fourniret tried to abduct in Belgium managed to escape and raise the alarm. He is also charged with attempted abduction over that case.

Members of the victims' family as well as two women who survived Fourniret's attempt to kidnap them are to testify in the trial that is expected to last two months.

If convicted, the couple face life imprisonment.


- AFP/so