New suspect in Alps murder of British family

POLICE are to question a man who tried to kill three of his relatives over the 2012 murder of a British family in the French Alps.

The name of Michel Hecht, 53, has been given to officials investigating the unsolved deaths of the al-Hilli family near Annecy.

Prosecutor Eric Maillaud confirmed Hecht will be questioned.

Saad al-Hilli, 50, from Claygate in Surrey, was shot in his car along with wife Iqbal, 47, and mother-in-law Suhaila. The couple’s two daughters survived. Cyclist Sylvain Mollier, 45, was also killed.

Hecht was convicted of three attempted murders in 2008 but freed ten months later. He shot at his brother, sister-in-law and sixmonth-old nephew in Florenville, Belgium in 2005. He was also suspected of the 1986 shootings of Norfolk teachers Lorraine Glasby and Paul Bellion, who were gunned down on a cycling holiday in Brittany.

A former cellmate of Hecht said he had confessed to the Brittany murders in 2001 but the confession was ruled inadmissible.

Miss Glasby’s mother Rosemary said: ‘I thought the cases might be linked. There are so many similarities.’

Detective Pascal Huche, who worked on the Brittany murders, tipped off investigators. He told the Sun on Sunday that the 2012 and 1986 attacks both involved weapons used at close range in isolated areas.