Secrets at sea
Were the rescued siblings really cold-blooded killers?
On 16 August 2006, a brother and sister were found clinging to a life raft in the Atlantic. Their small dinghy was struggling in stormy waters just off the coast of Cape Saint Vincent, in the Algarve – the most westerly point in Europe.
Luckily for Corinne Caspar, 48, and her half-brother Thierry Beille, 51, they were plucked from the water by a Spanish cargo ship.
The dramatic and heartwarming rescue made newspaper headlines.
French tourists Corinne and Thierry claimed they were victims of a shipwreck, were lucky survivors.
They’d been forced to take to the sea when the luxury yacht in which they were sailing foundered in a rare summer storm.
Yet the yacht’s owner, Andre Le Floc’h, 67, hadn’t been so fortunate. He was missing, lost at sea.
Le Floc’h was known as a quiet and wealthy adventurer who loved the sea and women. He’d bought his 20m trimaran boat, the Intermezzo, a few years before.
He’d been befriended by the attractive Corinne earlier that August. They’d met when the younger holidaymaker had struck up a conversation in a cafe on the Portuguese island of Armona.
They later went for dinner, before Corinne introduced him to her half-brother Thierry.
And then, on that fateful day, it seemed experienced sailor Le Floc’h had taken the siblings out to sea.
After their rescue, the pair were taken to Lagos to recover, while coastguards searched for the boat and its captain.
On 18 August, divers made a grisly discovery on the floating wreckage of the Intermezzo. The body of Andre Le Floc’h. But something didn’t add up – his hands had been tied behind his back, his feet bound together with rope.
His lifeless body had been weighted down with a lead belt strapped around his waist. As if ready to be thrown into the Atlantic.
Upon questioning, Corinne and Thierry claimed Le Floc’h had invited them for a trip on his boat. Only, once out at sea, they claimed, he’d tried to rape Corinne.
The pair said that they’d been forced to restrain Le Floc’h, to tie him up.
But when the storm unexpectedly hit, the yacht had capsized. They told the police that they’d tried to free Le Floc’h and rescue him
– but in the end, could only save themselves.
Corinne’s uncle,
Jean Caspar, spoke out to journalists, backing the siblings’ story.
‘Corinne told me they’d met Andre Le Floc’h, who suggested a boat trip. They’d even bought groceries to help share the cost of the trip,’ he said.
‘Once they were out at sea, he became violent, obliging them to tie him up.’
But, days later, a postmortem on the sailor’s body found signs that he’d been struck on the head and neck. There was no
water in his lungs, either.
It meant the retired civil servant must have died before the boat capsized.
And evidence also suggested the victim had been suffocated with a plastic bag.
Experts believed this may have been on dry land, before the boat had even set sail.
The Portuguese police quickly arrested Corinne Caspar and Thierry Beille, and they were charged with the murder of Andre Le Floc’h.
The siblings protested their innocence. Relatives also spoke out. They confirmed Caspar and Beille were half-brother and sister, but had been separated as children and adopted by different families.
Reunited a decade before, they’d become inseparable, travelling around Europe as hippies. They got by, making jewellery, doing casual work.
Corinne’s mother Carole Caspar told journalists Beille was intelligent and charming, but could also be manipulative and violent.
‘He entered our lives
10 years ago – and since then, he has poisoned our existence,’ she said bitterly.
Neighbours of Le Floc’h described the French sailor as quiet, with a passion for his boat. And his son said he was a calm man, who sometimes took paying customers on short cruises.
At the murder trial in Lagos Court, prosecutors claimed down-on-their-luck siblings Caspar and Beille, who had very little money left (around £870) planned everything beforehand.
They said
Caspar had befriended Le Floc’h, boarding his yacht several times to dine.
Then the pair turned up on the day of the trip with their dog and piles of luggage.
Prosecutors said Caspar and Beille murdered Le Floc’h, intending to steal his £90,000 yacht after dumping his body at sea.
Prosecutor Magalhaes e Menezes said that the siblings had acted together with full knowledge of what they were doing.
‘They showed no respect for human life, having gained the sailor’s confidence to steal the Intermezzo,’ he said.
The only thing the pair hadn’t expected was the storm. With practically no sailing experience, in rough waters, it was no surprise the yacht had capsized – especially without Le Floc’h to guide the boat to safety.
The court heard that when the police searched the wreckage of the yacht, they found evidence on a mobile phone to suggest Caspar and Beille had meticulously planned Le Floc’h’s murder. Taking the stand, the siblings stood firm, maintained Le Floc’h had turned violent. Corinne Caspar told the court, ‘I only hit Andre Le Floc’h on the head once after he had tried to rape me, which caused him to fall to his knees and allowed my brother and I to tie him up.
‘This was for our own safety, as he refused to take us to shore and was brandishing a knife at us. He was a mad man,’ she said.
They claimed Le Floc’h was still alive when the boat sank.
As the trial drew to a close, defence lawyer Manuel dos Santos claimed ‘little evidence was produced in court’.
‘The intention to kill was not proven,’ he said.
So were these half-siblings guilty of a terrible crime?
Or victims of a terrifying ordeal, a shipwreck and a dramatic sea rescue?
The quiet man loved the sea and women