Trial starts over truffle hunter’s killing

A French farmer went on trial for murdering a man he thought was stealing his prized truffles in a case that has lifted the lid on a “black diamond war” over one of the world’s most expensive delicacies. Laurent Rambaud, 37, faces a maximum of 30 years in prison for killing Ernest Pardo, 42, a hospital worker who he shot twice with a pump-action shotgun after finding him digging in his truffle patch with a dog in December 2010. The shooting took place in Grignan, a small town in the Rhone valley near one of France’s largest truffle markets, where at Christmas time the fungi can fetch up to €1000 ($1502) apiece. Rambaud’s arrest on murder charges caused fury in the southern Drome region, where locals said the farmer was only defending his livelihood and felt “threatened”. Rambaud, from a respected local family and head of the region’s young farmers’ association, allegedly sat in wait for the suspected thief. He surprised Pardo who was carrying a small pick, which the farmer says he mistook for a weapon. Rambaud opened fire but insists that he had no intention of killing the alleged poacher, who police said was an experienced truffle hunter who sold his finds at local markets. Rambaud’s arrest caused protests from fellow truffle farmers, many of whom said they were facing a nearimpossible task defending their black truffles from thieves bent on taking the fungi, and their dogs. Friends of Pardot staged their own protest in nearby Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux, saying that he “didn’t deserve to be killed like a dog”.