Sunday Mirror

I helped put the Serpent killer in jail.. he’s terrifying

ON THE MURDERER IN TV DRAMA

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December 1975. Nadine said: “My husband did not like Charles because he noticed that strange things were happening. He told me, ‘Your friend is not a good guy, he is poisoning these people’.

“The backpacker­s were vulnerable. We did not have the internet then and the phones were terrible, so parents were used to not hearing from them.

“I remember meeting the Dutch couple briefly. I walked into Sobhraj’s apartment and he was standing over them trying to convince them to buy sapphires and rubies. He said, ‘Sorry, I am talking business with these people, can you come back later?’

“Days later I heard noises – people moaning – and asked Charles, ‘What’s that?’ He said, ‘The Dutch are sick’. Then before Christmas we saw photos of the burned bodies in the Bangkok Post newspaper and Yannick told me, ‘It’s the Dutch couple. He killed them’.”

SURPRISE

Nadine loaned Dominque and Yannick £1,000 so they could fly back to France while Sobhraj was away.

Her most terrifying moment came in March 1976 when Sobhraj and his cronies returned and demanded to know where his pals had gone.

Nadine said: “It was terrible. I was waiting in a hotel lobby when they came up behind me and said, ‘Surprise!’ My heart jumped. They offered me a ride home and I had to get into a very small lift with them.

“I was sure Charles could hear my heart beating. He kept asking, ‘Where is Dominique and Yannick’?”

Nadine was scared to go to Thai police – fearing officers were corrupt.

She and Remi tipped off Belgium diplomat Paul Siemons and Dutch diplomat Herman Knippenber­g, now 76, who became obsessed by the case.

Together, they broke into Sobhraj’s apartment and gathered evidence – including diaries and personal items used by Interpol to solve a string of murders. Sobhraj and Leclerc fled but were arrested in New Delhi in July 1976. The serial killer – who had murdered two in India – was caught drugging French tourists. He got 12 years for poisoning the travellers – but that was extended to 20 years after he escaped jail and was recaptured.

Despite her conviction for helping to drug victims, Leclerc was released and returned to Quebec. In 1984, aged 38, she died of ovarian cancer. Sobhraj, now 76, was sent back to France in 1997. He was held in Nepal in 2003 and given life for two murders there. He is still in jail. Nadine, who separated from 72-year-old Remi in 2005, said: “I felt sorry for Marie-Andrée because she was a sad and simple person, not the movie star we see in the series.

“And she was Charles’ prisoner. She told me, ‘I have no passport, no money and if I try to leave he will kill me’.

“When Charles was arrested I celebrated with a bottle of champagne. I don’t feel guilty because I know I did everything I could to put a stop to the murders. And I can tell you it was a good lesson. Now I am very careful with the people I meet.”

 ??  ?? TV ROLE Actor Tahar Rahim as killer in The Serpent
■■Episode three of The Serpent is on BBC1 at 9pm today
TV ROLE Actor Tahar Rahim as killer in The Serpent ■■Episode three of The Serpent is on BBC1 at 9pm today
 ??  ?? MONSTER Murderer Charles Sobhraj and Marie-Andrée Leclerc
MONSTER Murderer Charles Sobhraj and Marie-Andrée Leclerc

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