Joanna Parrish: Devastated family of British student murdered in France to see justice three decades after her death
In a quiet graveyard in Gloucestershire, the only sounds are the bells ringing at the top of the hour, and the birds in the trees.
You look over the fence and see the River Severn, and the hills of the valley in the distance.
It is a beautiful, peaceful spot, but it is also a place linked to crime, violence and decades of anguish.
Joanna Parrish is buried here, her gravestone written in English and French.
She was murdered 33 years ago hundreds of miles away, in the French city of Auxerre.
Joanna was 20 years old, a university student teaching in France as part of her degree.
She went missing and then, not long after, her body was found in the River Yonne.
Nobody has ever been convicted of her murder, but we know who did it.
A serial killer called Michel Fourniret, who was already in prison for seven murders, admitted to killing Joanna five years ago, but died before he could be put on trial.
But now, after decades of despair and tragic errors, justice may be within sight.
Because Fourniret did not act alone.
Joanna Parrish was 20 years old when she went missing
He was helped in his murders by his wife, Monique Olivier, who lured girls and young women and allowed them to be attacked, raped and murdered by Fourniret.
She is still alive, now aged 74 and serving a 28-year sentence for complicity in the murders.
She once confessed to seeing Fourniret murder a young woman in Auxerre – clearly Joanna – but then retracted that statement.
Now, though, she is about to go on trial for being an accomplice in three further murders, including that of Joanna.
It has taken a third of a century, but perhaps justice is finally going to be delivered, for Joanna and for the parents who have spent decades searching for a form of closure.
Lives changed forever
At home in Gloucestershire, Pauline Murrell tends to her pet budgie and offers us a cup of tea.
From the sofa, her former husband, Roger Parrish, asks for a coffee.
The pair have been divorced for decades, but are still evidently close, caring and friendly. They finish each other’s sentences.
Joanna’s parents, Pauline and Roger, said their daughter was a ‘kind, bright and smart person’
Their lives changed, instantly and horribly, when they were told that their daughter had been murdered.
“It’s impossible to take in,” says Pauline. “They said she was found in the water, and I was staring out of a window and I simply couldn’t take it in. I couldn’t cry for six months.
“Then I got the post-mortem report and I opened it on a Sunday morning, and I wasn’t able to get out of bed.”
Roger wipes away a tear, the memories still so haunting. “She deserved a long and happy, fulfilled life. She worked hard and she deserved it. She was helpful, part of the community. People still remember her. She did well.”
Pauline’s last phone call with her had ended with a declaration of love from the parents to their daughter. It is a memory that offers some solace.
The devastation of grief was followed by frustration about the police investigation.
Roger and Pauline heard little from the French authorities. Instead, they went to France themselves and started asking questions, looking for information and demanding more effort.
And then came the arrest of Fourniret, and the pieces began to fall into place.
As it slowly became apparent that his wife had helped him, so Roger and Pauline became convinced that he had killed their daughter.
“Jo was a kind person,” says Roger, “but she was also bright and smart.
“She was not likely to have trusted a man who was by himself.
“When we found out that there was a female accomplice, I remember thinking that we had never thought of that. Why would we have done? But right from that moment, I thought, ‘this is it – this is the person’.”
But still the police could not put together the evidence to link Fourniret with Joanna’s murder.
In fact, they had bungled the investigation, mishandling the crime scene and mislaying crucial forensic evidence.
French police ‘lost some really important evidence’
Bernie Kinsella was a detective who worked as a liaison between British and French police.
He discovered an investigation that struggled to link multiple crimes, or to manage its resources. He’s still in touch with Roger and Pauline.
“The French lost some really important evidence,” he told me. “The semen sample from the original rape had just been lost, which is unthinkable in terms of any major investigation like that.
“Losing an exhibit like that is a glaring error, so that had a massive impact on their ability to investigate this properly.”
Desperate, Pauline even took the step of writing to Monique Olivier.
“I remember just saying that, from one mother to another mother, I wanted to know what happened. Her lawyers said it was a trick, that it wasn’t proper, and I was upset about that.
“It wasn’t a trick. It was heartfelt.
“It’s just such a horrible, horrible thing. I can’t imagine that any mother would be able to live with themselves.
“And now she’s pushing the victim bit, but I certainly don’t consider her the victim.” Her voice echoes with contempt.
Olivier has always suggested that she was coerced and intimidated by Fourniret, a claim that has been roundly dismissed by prosecutors.
When she was first convicted, in 2008, the court concluded that, far from being easily influenced, she was highly intelligent and capable.
The convictions of Olivier and Fourniret did not bring justice for Joanna. Olivier had originally made a statement linking her husband to the murder, but she then withdrew it.
The case went quiet and was eventually closed.
But in 2018, 28 years after he killed her, Fourniret admitted to the murder.
A court case beckoned before being delayed by the pandemic. Then, to the frustration of Roger and Pauline, Fourniret died.
“When he died, it wasn’t a great surprise because we knew he’d been ill, but we did feel cheated. I wanted to face him in court and that was taken away.
“We’re glad that he died. The world is a better place without a person like that but, at the same time, we would have wanted to face him – to look him in the eye.”
‘Trial is the last hurdle’
Now they have another chance. Both parents will be travelling to Nanterre, just outside Paris, for the trial.
“We probably look on it as the last hurdle,” says Roger. “It’s been a long time. It’s over 30 years so we’re glad it’s taking place.
“Until it’s over, we can’t get to whatever will be the next stage of our lives.”
Pauline adds: “I keep saying that it’s not going to bring her back.
“It’s almost as if you feel that once it’s over, everything will go back to normal. But it’ll never be like that.”
“No, it won’t be,” says Roger, nodding, holding his head.
“But it will stop us having to think all the time about what we are going to do next, what’s the next step, what are we going to do.
“Hopefully, that will be it – that it will clear our heads a little bit. We’ll never forget Jo. She’ll always be there.”
Roger and Pauline are warm, charming people, whose lives have been blighted in the most horrendous way.
If Olivier is convicted, it will surely bring some kind of closure.
But you wonder – after waiting so long for something so important, can it ever really be enough?
Two firefighters and a member of the public have died in a large fire in Bicester, the fire service announced.
The firefighters died in the inferno at a former RAF base in Oxfordshire, which now hosts historic motoring and aviation centre Bicester Motion.
The local fire service was called to the scene at 6.39pm last night.
Chief Fire Officer Rob MacDougall said: “It is with a very heavy heart that we today report the loss of two of our firefighters. Families have been informed and are being supported.
“Our thoughts are with them at this most difficult of times and we ask for privacy to be respected.
“We cannot release any details at present but will provide further information as soon as we can.”
Two other firefighters sustained serious injuries and are currently being treated in hospital, Oxfordshire County Council said in a statement.
Footage shared on social media shows plumes of smoke billowing into the sky and flames swallowing the large building.
Clouds of smoke from the fire were billowing into the sky last night. Pic:@kajer87X
Two firefighters and one other person died in the fire, while two more firefighters were seriously injured. Pic: PA
Ten fire crews attended the incident, with four remaining at the scene. The fire is still ongoing, but it is considered under control.
Local residents were advised to remain indoors and keep their windows shut, but this advice has now been lifted.
Bicester Motion said in a statement it would be closed today and over the weekend.
The cause of the fire is not yet known.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
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UK
‘Toxic’ army unit charged with investigating sex crimes allowing abusers to ‘get away with it’ in own ranks, whistleblower says
More than a dozen women came forward to report a staff sergeant in the Royal Military Police (RMP) for sexual abuse, but he was allowed to resign from the army instead of face charges.
Warning: This article contains material some readers may find distressing
That’s the claim of a whistleblower who served as a sergeant in the RMP for over a decade and says she was one of the man’s victims.
Amy, not her real name, says a “toxic” culture in the military police means sexual predators in the army are “getting away with stuff that they shouldn’t be getting away with”.
It’s a rare insight into life inside the Royal Military Police, the corps charged with investigating crime in the army.
Amy described how the man who assaulted her would go into women’s rooms and sit on their beds. She says he used to force her to go out driving with him at night and talk about sex.
“He preyed on the young, new females that were in the unit,” she says.
“One day, I was out with my friends in town and he was on patrol… There were two of us that went over to speak to him and I had quite a low-cut top on.
“So he hooked his finger around my top and pulled my boob out”.
She recalls as she tried to stop him, “he grabbed my hand and put it on his penis”.
She claims there are other men in the RMP who’ve been accused of sexual offences, recalling hearing of five separate allegations of rape against male colleagues by female colleagues.
“If all of this sexual assault and bullying and rapes are going on within the military police, how can they then go out and investigate the wider army for doing the same things?” she says.
“It doesn’t work.”
Amy, a former RMP officer who alleges sexual abuse in the armed forces
‘He got away with it’
Looking back on her career in the army is difficult for Amy.
After leaving, she tried to settle back into life as a civilian with a new job and a young family to look after, but says she worried about bumping into former colleagues in the street.
“It’s taken me a long time to heal,” she says.
“I was very bitter towards my military career when I left, but I’ve had to sort of learn, build myself up again and remember the good times because they were really good times as well… I think it was just so bad at points.”
When she joined the RMP, she believed she would be part of a unit “representing how the rest of the soldiers should be conducting themselves”.
The reality, she says, was that she had become part of “one of the most toxic” corps in the army.
She recalls being told that the staff sergeant she had reported for sexual assault would be allowed to resign.
“They basically told me he’s not going to be charged, but will be leaving the military… doing him a favour,” she says.
“He got away with it all,” she adds. “He’s not going to lose his pension and whatever else he would have lost with a dishonourable discharge.
“He’s left without a criminal record… that’s not safe for civilians as well, because it’s not even on his record.”
‘They investigate themselves’
Earlier this year, an inquest into the suicide of 19-year-old Royal Artillery Gunner Jaysley Beck found she had been failed by the army after reporting sexual assault and harassment.
Since then, Sky News has reported claims of widespread abuse and growing calls for investigations into sexual offences to be removed from the RMP and instead carried out by civilian police.
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From March: Army women reveal alleged abuse
The Labour chair of the influential House of Commons Defence Committee is now urging the government to act.
Tan Dhesi told Sky News: “The system needs to change… incidents of sexual violence and sexual assault should be dealt with not by the Royal Military Police but by civilian police and civilian courts.
“I hope that the government will be making that substantial change in the very, very near future; in fact, they should do it ASAP.”
Tan Dhesi MP told Sky News that ‘the system needs to change… ASAP’
Since Gunner Beck’s death, a new tri-service complaints team has been announced by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
The change will see bullying, harassment, discrimination related service complaints dealt with by a team outside the commands of the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force.
However, Amy believes investigations need to be done “completely separately from the military”.
“Otherwise it doesn’t work because friends will be investigating friends,” she says.
“I think there’s such a male-dominated space in the military still. Women have no chance… and it’s not fair because people are getting away with stuff that they shouldn’t be getting away with and allowed to continue doing it and ruining lives.”
She believes the entire system lacks accountability. “They investigate themselves,” she says, even down to how the RMP is regulated.
“The people that run that unit are RMP. They get posted in, do a few years and then get posted back out.”
‘I was told off for reporting it’
Katie, also not her real name, served in the army for over 20 years. She saw active service in Afghanistan and rose to the rank of Captain.
It was a distinguished career that was brought to a premature end by sexual abuse and whistleblowing.
Having taken the difficult decision to leave the army she now leads a secluded life and suffers poor mental health.
Katie (centre), who resigned from the armed forces after alleged sexual abuse, as a serving RMP officer
“I still struggle,” she says. “I’m still very wary of men. My relationship is strained.
“Everything seems like black and white now, like I live my life in black and white rather than full colour… As a person, it has changed my life forever.”
To begin with, she was in the same unit that Gunner Beck would join years later. She too experienced harassment and abuse, and says her line manager “laughed” when she reported it.
“I just felt like dehumanised, I felt like property, I didn’t feel like a person anymore,” she says.
“And so I would avoid people… I would hide in the garages, behind the tanks, in between the guns, just praying that these people hadn’t seen me and I might be able to escape them for that day.”
She moved to a different unit but says wherever she went, abuse was rife. After being groped by a higher-ranking colleague, she assumed her chain of command would escalate her report to the RMP.
Instead, she says she was “put in front of the Sergeant Major and told off”.
“I remember at the time saying I’d like to call the civilian police, and I was told that I wasn’t allowed to do that and I’d be disciplined if I tried to do that,” she said. “So I was so frightened.”
She stayed in the army, hoping to make a difference. As an officer, she began reporting abusers on behalf of younger victims.
“I kept this goal in my head of reaching a position one day where I could help other women,” she said. “When I got there, I realised that it was way more toxic than I could have ever imagined.
“The officer corps were actually the worst perpetrators of all because they brushed it under the carpet. There was a will and a need more to protect themselves or their friends. Or the reputation of the unit first and foremost.”
She believes changes made by the MoD since the death of Gunner Beck to remove the chain of command from sexual abuse investigations will make “little difference”, saying they’ll still be carried out by “the same people, but just under a new title”.
‘They should be held accountable’
An MoD spokesperson told Sky News that “unacceptable and criminal behaviour has absolutely no place in our Armed Forces”.
They added: “That is why this government is creating a new Tri-Service Complaints team to take the most serious complaints out of the chain of single service command for the first time, and has launched a new central taskforce on Violence Against Women and Girls to give this issue the attention it deserves.
“We are also establishing an independent Armed Forces Commissioner with the power to visit defence sites unannounced, and to investigate and report to parliament any welfare matters affecting service life.”
Amy believes the RMP is not fit for purpose.
“They have higher standards to uphold, yet they don’t uphold them within their own regiment, within their own lives, and then they’re expected to police and uphold those standards throughout the rest of the army,” she says.
“At the end of the day, they know the law and they should be held accountable for what they do.”
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK
Further moves to amend the controversial assisted dying bill are being made by MPs as it returns to the Commons for another day of emotionally charged debate.
After a marathon committee stage, when more than 500 amendments were debated, of which a third were agreed, the bill returns to the Commons with 130 amendments tabled.
As a result, the final and decisive votes on whether the bill clears the Commons and heads to the House of Lords are not expected until a further debate on 13 June.
The bill proposes allowing terminally ill adults with less than six months to live to receive medical assistance to die, with approval from two doctors and an expert panel.
Why is assisted dying so controversial – and where is it already legal?
In a historic vote last November, after impassioned arguments on both sides, MPs voted 330 to 275 in favour of Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.
Sir Keir Starmer voted in favour, while Deputy PM Angela Rayner, Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood voted against.
The Conservatives were also split, with leader Kemi Badenoch voting in favour and former PM Rishi Sunak against. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage also voted against the bill.
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Assisted dying: Care sector ‘not being heard’
The PM, who is attending a summit in Albania, will be absent this time, but asked for his current opinion, told reporters: “My views have been consistent throughout.”
No fewer than 44 of the new amendments have been tabled by Ms Leadbeater herself, with government backing, a move that has been criticised by opponents of the bill.
Opponents also claim some wavering MPs are preparing to switch from voting in favour or abstaining to voting against and it only needs 28 supporters to change their mind to kill the bill.
Confirmed switchers from voting in favour to against include Tory MPs George Freeman and Andrew Snowden, Reform UK chief whip Lee Anderson and ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe.
Labour MP Debbie Abrahams and Tory MP Charlie Dewhirst, who abstained previously, are now against and Labour’s Karl Turner, who voted in favour at second reading, is now abstaining.
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Assisted Dying Bill criticised
Mr Turner, a former barrister, told Sky News that an amendment to replace a high court judge with a panel of experts “weakens the bill” by removing judicial safeguards.
But in a boost for the bill’s supporters, Reform UK’s Runcorn and Helsby by-election winner Sarah Pochin, a former magistrate, announced she would vote in favour. Her predecessor, Labour’s Mike Amesbury, voted against.
“There are enough checks and balances in place within the legislation – with a panel of experts assessing each application to have an assisted death, made up of a senior lawyer, psychiatrist, and social worker,” said Ms Pochin, who is now the only Reform UK MP supporting the bill.
A Labour MP, Jack Abbott, who voted against in November, told Sky News he was now “more than likely” to vote for the bill, which was now in a much stronger position, he said.
Ms Leadbeater’s supporters strongly deny that the bill is at risk of collapse and are accusing its opponents of “unsubstantiated claims” and of “scare stories” that misrepresent what the bill proposes.
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Two people given months to live debate assisted dying
“There is a pretty transparent attempt by opponents of the bill to try to convince MPs that there’s a big shift away from support when that simply isn’t true,” an ally of Ms Leadbeater told Sky News.
Speaking in an LBC radio phone-in on the eve of the debate on the amendments, Ms Leadbeater said she understood her bill was “an emotive issue” and there was “a lot of passion about this subject”.
But she said: “I would be prepared to be involved in a compassionate end to someone’s life if that was of their choosing. And it’s always about choice. I have friends and family who are very clear that they would want this option for themselves.
“There is overwhelming public support for a change in the law and literally everywhere I go people will stop me and say thank you for putting this forward. I would want this choice.”
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Also ahead of the debate, health minister Stephen Kinnock and justice minister Sarah Sackman wrote to all MPs defending the government’s involvement in Ms Leadbeater’s amendments to her bill.
“The government remains neutral on the passage of the bill and on the principle of assisted dying, which we have always been clear is a decision for parliament,” they wrote.
“Government has a responsibility to ensure any legislation that passes through parliament is workable, effective and enforceable.
“As such, we have provided technical, drafting support to enable the sponsor to table amendments throughout the bill’s passage. We have advised the sponsor on amendments which we deem essential or highly likely to contribute to the workability of the bill.”
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