Christian Van Geloven

Christian Van Geloven (April 18, 1945 – August 6, 2011) was a Dutch kidnapper, rapist and double murderer, responsible for the murders of two young French girls on October 19, 1991, in Elne, Pyrénées-Orientales. For his crimes, he was sentenced to life imprisonment with 30 years of preventive detention on March 25, 1994, for the two killings, which he served until his cancer-related death in prison.

The murders and the investigation On October 19, 1991, around 4p.m., the 10-year-old cousins Muriel Sanchez and Ingrid Van de Portaele were kidnapped from Elne while out to buy candy. According to Van Geloven, he took the young girls to a studio in Collioure where he raped, tortured and strangled them; however, this version corresponded more like a fantasy - the girls probably were raped and killed on the roadside. With directions from their killer, Sanchez and Van de Portaele's clothes were found in a nearby lake. As for the bodies, they had been thrown at the bottom of a 70-meter ravine at the Cirque de Navacelles.

Trial The trial of Christian Van Geloven, now dubbed the "Monster of Elne", opened at the Perpignan cour d'assises on March 21, 1994. Protected behind a reinforced glass cage, the accused admitted to being a pedophile, to having killed both Muriel and Ingrid and subsequently disposed of their remains. Even his lawyer, Mr. Furbery, turned against him, warning against the extreme dangerousness of his client and the high chance of recidivism in his case.

Reform of the penal code As a result, from the Van Geloven and Tissier cases, a new judicial reform was implemented in France, with the creation of a "perpetual" security in the event of infanticides and child killings.