Dickon Hooper
BBC West

The judge has moved onto the "criminal pact" between Monique Olivier and Michel Fourniret.

"I never had a pact, whatever it was," she tells the court.

"We made promises we didn't keep. They were to do everything that he said."

Pushed on what promises were made, she says she can't say.

"What did you promise in exchange, Madame Olivier?," asks the judge.

She answers: "To meet a young person."

The judge reminds her she wrote in letters that it was "to procure a young virgin."

"It's ridiculous," she answers, saying, "I regret all that".

Dickon Hooper
BBC West

The judge reads a report saying Monique Olivier knew what she was getting into with Fourniret and that she had written a letter saying she "liked to carry out his orders".

This gets to heart of the matter.

"It was completely stupid," she responds.

She says the relationship with her husband changed, and that she had had enough of obeying him and the relationship deteriorated.

"When I reflect on everything that happened, all the horrors, he used me like an object," she tells the court.

She confirms Fourniret never hit her, but says she was afraid of him.

"He had a way of speaking, of reacting, that made you think something could happen.

"He would say to me 'you obey, you don't try and understand, obey and that's it'."

A policeman told her the next victims were her and Selim.

"He [Fourniret] knew I was afraid of him. He was happy to see that," she says.

The court hears Michel Fourniret was in prison for sexual violence against women and never kept this from Monique Olivier.

She says: "I thought I could succeed in..."

Judge Didier Safar: "Getting him out of that?"

Monique Olivier: "Yes."

Dickon Hooper
BBC West

The jury hears Monique Olivier and Michel Fourniret lived together until 2003.

She continues: "Selim didn't like his dad. When his dad used to leave, he'd be happy."

"Were you a normal family?," asks the judge.

Monique Olivier answers: "There were misunderstandings between father and son."

She says Michel Fourniret was "quite severe" with Selim.

"Never violent though. More, very mean. When we had people over, he would put Selim down."

Selim was 16 when his mother was first jailed.

He did not visit her in prison, but he did go and see his father.

Dickon Hooper
BBC West

The court hears that in 1987 Monique Olivier replied to an advert in a paper worded: "Prisoner, would like to correspond with someone, of any age, to forget loneliness."

This prisoner was Michel Fourniret.

Some 200 letters were exchanged between the couple.

They got married and their son Selim was born in 1988.

"I was incapable of looking after myself. I don't know why," says the defendant.

Dickon Hooper
BBC West

After her first marriage and before meeting Michel Fourniret, she met an American Mark Wilson and married him.

"Because he wanted someone to marry and get French nationality," she says, shrugging.

However, the couple got divorced quickly.

Dickon Hooper
BBC West

Monique Olivier met her first husband through her parents when she was looking for work.

He was 13 years older than her and gave her work as a secretary.

She went on to have two sons with him, who both now live in south of France.

But she left the relationship, saying he became violent.

"One night, I had put the kids to bed and he saw me in the bedroom and he slapped me, tried to strangle me and put me in the bathroom and forced my head into a full bath".

"That was the only time. It was enough," she tells the court.

Dickon Hooper
BBC West

Monique Olivier tells the court her mother died about 43 years ago, before her oldest child was born.

Her father died in 2015.

When asked by the judge if she got on with her father when she was in jail, she answers: "He never wrote to me. He didn't come to visit ever."

Speaking more about her upbringing, the defendant explains she left school at 16.

"I should've been more interested in my studies."

Her father made her go to secretarial college, but she didn't want to go.

She stayed two years but didn't get the diploma.

Dickon Hooper
BBC West

The court hears Monique Olivier lost her virginity aged 20, to a man she never saw again.

"I met someone like that and it was decided... I don't know how to explain it," she says.

She explains they were waiting at a train station and he suggested they went to a hotel and she followed him.

Monique Olivier told a psychologist she had no regrets about it.

"After, thinking about it, I realised it was stupid... I liked him. I thought I would see him again."

She says it was consensual - and her previous statement that this could've been rape was "excessive".

Dickon Hooper
BBC West

Monique Olivier is speaking about her childhood, which she describes as "lonely".

The defendant told the court she was born in Tours and moved to Nantes when she was four.

She explains her mother was an alcoholic, perhaps because her husband had a double life, as he had an affair.

She says: "I had a normal adolescence, with friends and all that. I didn't go out like the young people of today."

The defendant agrees she didn't have a structured childhood, and that it lacked affection.

She has three brothers, but one died young.

Dickon Hooper
BBC West

The judge explains to jurors that Monique Olivier has been in prison - first in Belgium from 2004, then in France since 2005.

He says experts have given different explanations of her behaviour and that judging in French courts is very much about establishing what happened, and examining the accused's personality.

Now they will look at her childhood, schooling, family life and her meeting Michel Fourniret - her professional life and incarceration.

The defendant is about to speak.

Dickon Hooper
BBC West

Court has restarted for the afternoon session.

We're expecting the "interrogatoire de personalite de l'accusée" - ie, the questioning of Monique Olivier about her childhood and who she was, right up to when she met Michel Fourniret.

Dickon Hooper
BBC West

Welcome back to live coverage for the afternoon from Paris.

After the break we spoke to Monique Olivier's lawyer, Richard Delgenes, who said: "Her life is split in two".

"Before 1987 she wasn't a criminal - on the contrary. Then she met Michel Fourniret," he said.

"So you have up to 1987, then 1987 to 2004 and the confessions, and then 2004 to 2023.

"There are three different Monique Oliviers. her psychological profile explains this - you will see - she adapts to her environment and the people she meets."

Didier Saban, the lawyer for the Parrish family, told us: "it's her defence technique - to stammer, to give you some words, so you cant put the victims drama in front of her; to give fuzzy, indirect answers.

"You'll see, she will tremble, go quiet for 10 minutes, and people stop questioning her. the only way to get to the truth is to question her."

The court has broken for lunch.

We'll pause updates until proceedings continue in a couple of hours.

Dickon Hooper
BBC West

The judge asks Monique Olivier if she has anything to say.

She says: "I regret everything that happened, listening to all that."

Quite a moment in court.

Every time she says something, the place goes silent.

Dickon Hooper
BBC West

Monique Olivier shakes her head as the judge continues his summary.

He explains some psychologists have seen a certain pride in her for her former husband's actions, a dissimulation and an enjoyment in the acts.

She’s been shaking her head throughout that part of the summary.

Steve Knibbs
BBC West

I've been covering Joanna's parents fight for justice for many years now.

They have always shown huge resolve and tenacity to get the French authorities to keep up the investigation.

Sitting here in the press room in Paris with dozens of journalists watching the president, Didier Safar, read out the case against Monique Olivier in French and often mentioning Joanna's name is startling.

It's a day many thought would never come, but finally, 33 years since she died, someone is sitting in a French court accused of having a hand in the murder of Joanna. It's quite something.

Dickon Hooper
BBC West

The court hears Monique Olivier confessed that Fourniret had killed a young woman whose case matched that of Joanna Parrish in February 2005.

She later retracted this saying Joanna had been hit and had her hair pulled.

Jurors have been told Fourniret eventually confessed to the murder of Marie-Angele Domece and Estelle Mouzin.

Dickon Hooper
BBC West

The court has also heard about the catalogue of kidnap, rape and murder committed by Michel Fourniret.

When he was caught in 2003 trying to abduct a 13-year-old girl, the judge said "that was the last crime he committed".

Dickon Hooper
BBC West

The judge is going through the events concerning the kidnapping, imprisonment and murder of Marie-Angele Domece and Joanna Parrish.

He is also detailing the events concerning the disappearance of Estelle Mouzin.

The court has heard Joanna put an advert in a newspaper offering English lessons because she wanted money to go and see her boyfriend.

They heard she arranged to meet someone who wanted lessons for their son.

There were initially a lot of suspects for her murder.

Monique Olivier has been sitting, hunched, listening to all of this throughout.

Image source, Family photo

Image source, Family photo