Charleville-Mezieres (France):  A French court today sentenced serial killer Michel Fourniret and his wife to life in prison for the murder of seven girls and young women.

In one of France's most gruesome cases in recent years, the nine-member jury handed down the heaviest sentence under the country's criminal law, life imprisonment without possibility of parole, to 66-year-old Fourniret.

His wife Monique Olivier, 59,described by prosecutors as Fourniret's "bloody muse," was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 28 years without parole for helping lure his victims.

Dubbed the "Ogre of the Ardennes," Fourniret showed no emotion as he stood before the presiding judge who read out the verdict at the end of the two-month trial in the northeast town of Charleville-Mezieres.

Dressed in a pink sweater with white blouse, Olivier listened quietly to the judgement as she stood alongside Fourniret in the courtroom's glass enclosure for defendants.

During the trial, the grey-haired Fourniret admitted to the kidnap, rape and murder of seven girls and young women between 1987 and 2001,at times providing horrific details of the carnage.

Prosecutors argued that Olivier, a former nurse, helped him trap his victims, who were aged between 12 and 22. They were shot, strangled or stabbed to death.

As the verdict was read out, the families of the victims, clutching white roses and pictures of their loved ones, sobbed and hugged, seated in the first row of the public gallery.

Source : PTI