An Irish woman's hopes that a Paris tribunal would deliver a verdict in her lawsuit against the French state for "grievous error" were disappointed yet again yesterday. Lara Marlowe reports from Paris
Mrs Eroline O'Keeffe filed the suit in 2002, 15 years after her son Trevor was murdered in France, almost certainly the victim of the serial killer Pierre Chanal. She and her sister, Mrs Noeleen Slattery travelled to Paris this week in the hope of getting a decision.
Her lawyer, Mr Eric Dupond-Moretti, has asked for €150,000 in damages. "I'd be happy if I got the price of a Ryanair ticket," Mrs O'Keeffe said. "At least it would be an acknowledgment." In the pursuit of justice, the two sisters have spent tens of thousands of euro and attended hearings and visited judges' chambers in St Quentin, Amiens, Mourmelon, Reims and Paris.
In 2000, Mrs Slattery's daughter, Caroline, also died in mysterious circumstances in France. Mrs Slattery pushed for a thorough investigation into Caroline's death, but a court closed the case three weeks ago. Mrs Slattery is hiring a private detective to pursue it.
Chanal is believed to have raped and murdered eight young men in the 1980s. Yet successive investigating magistrates ignored evidence that a serial killer was at work, and Chanal was not brought to trial until last year. He committed suicide on the second day of his trial.
The families of Chanal's victims greeted each other warmly outside the courtroom in the Paris Palais de Justice yesterday. Thirty-six civil plaintiffs, all relatives of men believed killed by Chanal, are suing the State.
Though Mrs O'Keeffe had been promised a verdict yesterday, lawyers debated for 45 minutes whether her case should be treated separately from the others. A half-hour debate about a document missing from the lorry-load of papers transferred from Reims to Paris ensued. "It's the same old torture," Mrs O'Keeffe sighed.
Mr Dupond-Moretti said all the evidence eventually used to charge Chanal was in the hands of the justice system in 1989. Yet it took another five years to place him under investigation, and 14 more years to bring him to trial.
The lawyer for the State said damages demanded by Mr Dupond-Moretti were exhorbitant. "You must not confuse the loss of Mrs O'Keeffe's son with mistakes made by the justice system," she said. "For the period during which we recognise there were mistakes, Mrs O'Keeffe should be awarded a reasonable sum in line with other cases." The next hearing is on January 26th, 2005.