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CRIME

Monaco heiress relative admits role in her murder

The son-in-law of a murdered heiress, one of the richest in Monaco, has admitted to being involved in the brazen daytime attack in which she was killed. Suspicious bank transactions allegedly drew investigations' attention to the suspect.

Published: 27 June 2014 10:35 CEST
Monaco heiress relative admits role in her murder
A wealthy Monaco heiress's son-in-law has admitted a role in her murder. Photo: AFP

The son-in-law of the 77-year-old heiress of one of Monaco's richest families has admitted to involvement in her murder last month, Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin told AFP on Friday.

Wojciech Janowski, a 64-year-old who is also Poland's honorary consul in Monaco, "recognised his involvement" in the killing of Helene Pastor while in detention this week, Robin said.

He said more details would be revealed at a press conference in Marseille at 5pm.

Janowski has been in custody since Monday, when he was arrested along with 22 others by police investigating the shooting of Pastor multiple times as she was leaving a hospital in the French Riviera city of Nice on May 6.

Her driver, Mohammed Darwich, 64, also died from injuries sustained in the attack.

Janowski's 53-year-old partner Sylvia, Pastor's eldest daughter, was also detained for questioning but released on Thursday without charge.

Prosecutors had until the end of the day Friday to charge those detained or release them.

Robin said earlier that police had identified two suspects alleged to have been hitmen hired to kill Pastor.

The two men — a 31-year-old and a 24-year-old from Marseille's rough northern districts — had been identified as being "present at the location of the killing".

They were identified thanks to surveillance cameras, mobile telephone records and traces of DNA found in a Nice hotel where they stayed on the day of the killing.

Police are also said to be investigating "suspicious financial flows" in Janowski's accounts.

Pastor had inherited a huge real estate and construction business set up by her Italian grandfather Jean-Baptiste Pastor, a stone mason who moved to Monaco in 1880.

As the sleepy principality in the French Riviera slowly grew into a playground for the world's rich and famous, the family's fortune skyrocketed.

The real jackpot came in 1966 when Prince Rainier, whose fairytale wedding to Hollywood actress Grace Kelly helped catapult Monaco to international fame, gave permission to Helene Pastor's father Gildo to build high-rise buildings along the seafront.

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CRIME

Two girls wounded in knife attack outside French school

An assailant on Thursday wounded two girls aged 6 and 11 in a knife attack close to their school in the east of France and was later arrested, officials said.

Published: 18 April 2024 16:33 CEST
Two girls wounded in knife attack outside French school

The 11-year-old was stabbed outside the school in the town of Souffelweyersheim, on the outskirts of Strasbourg, while the six-year-old was attacked by the same man nearby.

Both received superficial wounds, police said, adding the attacker did not appear to have any known links to radicals and was not previously known to the security services.

Both received superficial wounds, police said, adding the attacker did not appear to have any known links to radicals and was not previously known to the security services.

Both girls are being treated in a paediatric hospital. Parents were later in the afternoon allowed to pick up their children, who had been confined to the school in the immediate aftermath of the attack.

The attacker, born in 1995, was arrested in the area where he attacked the second girl, the police said. He no longer had the knife in his hand and did not resist arrest, it added.

The attack came as Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced a series of measures aimed at cracking down on violence committed by schoolchildren against their peers. There was no indication so far that the attacker had a link with the school.

“I’m really scared. We’ve been reassured that the children are safe inside, but we don’t know when we’ll be able to get them back,” Sarah, a mother of an eight-year-old pupil, told AFP before the green light was given to collect the children.

“A friend called me. She saw the commotion in front of the school as she passed by. Her reflex was to call me so that I could pick up my son.”

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