“This is a big step forward, we have finally been heard”, welcomed Wednesday January 12 on franceinfo Maître Corinne Herrmann, lawyer with Didier Seban of Eric Mouzin, the father of Estelle Mouzin, kidnapped at the age of 9 years by Michel Fourniret, January 9, 2003. She reacted to the creation of a judicial center dedicated to “cold cases“, a specialized jurisdiction focused on serial crimes and unsolved cases, confirmed by the Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti. “We’ve been asking for this pole for twenty years (…) it was an emergency”, continued Corinne Herrmann, believing that there is “a real deficit” concerning serial killers. “It was about time we brought an answer to the families”. This pole will be operational from March 1, based in Nanterre, in the Paris region, and piloted by three investigating judges.
franceinfo: Eric Mouzin last week called for the creation of a “cold cases” pole. It is accelerating, therefore. I imagine that this morning is a big step forward for you?
Corinne Herrmann: Yes, this is a big step forward. We have finally been heard with Didier Seban.
“We have been seeking this pole for twenty years because we consider that with regard to serial killers, cases which must be reconciled throughout the country and old cases, there was a real deficit.”
Corinne Herrmann, lawyerto franceinfo
We are still talking about homicides, so it was urgent to have this center and we are obviously satisfied with its creation.
What will this change concretely for these businesses?
This will allow us to have judges who will specialize, like anti-terrorism judges or financial judges. They will be magistrates who will only deal with these cases and who, of course, will develop specific techniques, but above all will understand them much better. They will have the time, the time necessary to devote to these files, while magistrates today manage a whole series of different files, with detainees to manage, in addition to these “cold cases” that are heavy because they are in check. New techniques must be developed and special attention given to them, which the magistrates of this pole will finally be able to do.
Three examining magistrates in this pole, is that enough?
It’s a beginning, I am very optimistic. It’s a start and the Minister of Justice has indicated that this could change and that this will change depending on the cases because we have no real knowledge of the number of overdue cases and the number of pending cases. . The Minister of Justice spoke of 241 cases. In the office, we have 80 so I think that number will explode. We estimate that there are 200 unresolved cases every year, so if we do the math, over several years, there are really a lot of cases that have accumulated. Obviously, if other magistrates are needed, other means, we will monitor that with Didier Seban and the families of victims that we represent, but I think he is called upon to evolve.
Why didn’t France do this earlier?
We don’t understand, since we’ve been talking about it for twenty years. I released a book in 2008 which spoke of the need for this pole. We released a book with Didier Seban, a few months ago, with this proposal among others. It seems pretty clear to us that when it comes to serial killers, we are late. But, in France, we have always denied the fact that we have serial killers, that we have to work specifically on these killers. Today, I believe that we have understood that we have a lot more than we think and that seriality is something on which we have not been able to work in France. It was about time we brought an answer to the families. And then, the “cold cases “ are processed all over the world. There are specific services around the world. It was time to join the others and develop techniques.