I was like a shadow..
Serial killer The Serpent’s boast as he freely strolls streets in UK
THe bearded man in spectacles and blue jeans enjoying the spectacular views near the London eye could be any tourist. But the sightseer is freed serial killer Charles Sobhraj, 79, who allegedly killed at least 20 Western backpackers in Asia in the 70s and 80s.
We can reveal Sobhraj, known as The Serpent, regularly visits the UK and our pictures show him being filmed for a documentary in a false beard and wig.
Next week’s Channel 4 show follows his release from a Nepalese prison in 2022 after nearly 20 years behind bars.
Sobhraj was a seductive and ruthless con artist who is said to have drugged, robbed and killed tourists on the hippy trail in Thailand, India and Nepal.
He also inspired 2021 BBC drama The Serpent, which starred Tahar Rahim as Sobhraj and Jenna Coleman as his accomplice Marie-Andree Leclerc.
In Channel 4’s The Real Serpent: Investigating a Serial Killer, the French national was filmed on Westminster Bridge, surrounded by holidaymakers.
The documentary shows him stopping to take pictures of Big Ben and talking about his ability to flee justice. He boasts: “I was like a shadow.” When asked what he would say to someone in London who was afraid he could harm them, Sobhraj replies: “I will say they are free [to have] their feelings and thoughts.
“What I am doing in this programme is without financial benefits.
“I am fed up of all these allegations so I’m going to put forward my facts and let the people decide. You are the victim of brainwashing by the media.”
The show includes tapes of Sobhraj in a Delhi jail, in which he talks about the killing of US tourist Teresa Knowlton, 21, in Bangkok in 1975.
Sobhraj recalls: “She said, ‘Did you give me something? Because I feel very funny’.
“I said, ‘Teresa, I’m sorry to say to you but I think I have to do something bad to you’.”
He also apparently talks about killing Vitali Hakim, from Turkey, whose body was burned in Pattaya, Thailand.
The murders are among at least five in Thailand for which Sobhraj never faced trial.
They include the deaths of Dutch students Henk Bintanja, 29, and his fiancée Cornelia Hemker, 25.
The couple were poisoned by Sobhraj, who nursed them back to health only to allegedly drug them again and burn their bodies.
During the three-part show, Sobhraj is confronted by ex-detectives and a forensic psychologist who present him with evidence of his guilt. Sobhraj is unable to explain to former Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Malton and Commander Gary Copson why he was caught with possessions belonging to murdered travellers or how he crossed borders using their passports. But he continues to deny the murders.
Copson refuses to shake the killer’s hand in the final episode. Describing Sobhraj as sinister, Copson said: “The first thing I said to him was, ‘This is not a social visit, I am here to challenge you’.
“He did push some papers over the desk at one point and I backed away from them because you don’t know what’s on them.
“No way would I accept a cup of tea from him, put it that way.
“Yes, he’s 79. But he’s not a decrepit 79. He’s still got his marbles, he is capable.
“He has always had women doing his bidding. It would astonish me if he had not convinced one or more women, even now, that he was a safe and entertaining companion.”
Nepal’s Supreme Court ordered
Sobhraj’s release in December 2022, due to his age and failing health. He was convicted of the 1975 death of US tourist Connie Jo Bronzich, 29, and her Canadian friend Laurent Carriere, 26.
Sobhraj had already served a 20-year prison sentence in India for the poisoning of French tourist Jean-Luc Solomon.
But he was linked to more than 20 killings between 1972 and 1982.
Sobhraj was also dubbed “the Bikini Killer”, due to his tendency to target women in swimsuits.
When asked about his crimes by forensic psychologist Paul Britton, Sobhraj admits stealing from his victims and adds: “I was obliged to use the passport. It was immoral and I may apologise to my victims.” After spending hours with Sobhraj, Britton tells him his personality has the dark triad traits of narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy. He says: “Everything you have done, your life, shows those three dark characteristics.” Sobhraj goes on to proudly describe how he poisoned 60 French students with a meal at a Delhi hotel.
He says: “The scene was like a horror movie, all the staff began panicking… they didn’t know what was happening.” Following his arrest, detectives quickly realised they had unwittingly caught a man wanted for a string of murders around the world.
A smiling Sobhraj says: “I was the second most wanted man in the world.”
But he weeps as he apologises for his treatment of Marie-Andree, who died in Canada in 1984, aged 38.
He says: “I will regret it all my life. I am really, really sorry and I mean that.”
But ex-detective Malton rejects what she calls crocodile tears, saying he is a “horrible man” who controlled Marie-Andree. And Michel Jacomet, 75, who survived being drugged by Sobhraj in 1976, has previously said: “He’s a monster with the features of a human being who, even at his age, is still capable of anything.”
Since his release from jail, Sobhraj has travelled around the world using the money he earns from selling his story.
Copson said: “He goes where he likes in Europe, which some people might find a concern.”
But he added a file of evidence collected by the film-makers has been handed to authorities.
He said: “I think there is a very strong, overwhelming moral imperative to try to get these cases in Thailand tried somewhere. I am working on it.”
The Real Serpent: Investigating a Serial Killer starts on Tuesday on Channel 4 at 9pm.