Peake's killer died while guards 'watched TV'

By John Lichfield - Independent.co.uk

Friday, 30 June 2000

Sid Ahmed Rezala has his wish: he will never be extradited to France. The suicide in a Portuguese prison of the self-confessed French "train killer", accused of murdering the British student Isabel Peake and two other young women, provoked anguished recriminations from the relatives of his victims yesterday.

They berated the French and Portuguese police, prison and justice systems for the chapter of errors that allowed Rezala to escape from France last December and end his days on Wednesday night apparently by inhaling the dense black fumes from his smouldering mattress.

It appears that Rezala, 21, awaiting a final appeal on his extradition to France to face trial, set the mattress alight while guards were watching the Portugal-France Euro 2000 semi-final on television.

Prison Services director Celso Manata said Rezala was alone in the cell at the time. "The mattress was fireproof. It didn't burn, but produced a lot of smoke. There were no signs of burns, so he must have died from suffocation".

Before his final act of violence, Rezala, once described as a charming plausible and intelligent young man, took the precaution of blocking the cell door with a bar from his bed.

He was still alive when guards forced their way in, and he was rushed out of the jail for treatment, but died later.

This was not the first suicide attempt. In March, Mr Rezala slashed his arm and neck with a razor blade and was transferred to a prison hospital. But Portuguese prison authorities at the time dismissed it as "an attempt to draw attention to himself".

Rezala's body was delivered to the Lisbon morgue before dawn yesterday for a post mortem. In a statement which smacked of bolting the stable door, Portugal's Justice Minister Alberto Costa promised a full inquiry. "I regret what has happened and await the conclusions of the inquiry." Rezala was supposed to have been under "heavy surveillance" at the time of his death.

Yesterday the curtains were drawn at the north Staffordshire home of Isabel Peake's distraught parents. In a statement issued through their lawyer, Brian and Annie Peake, expressed their shock at the death of the man suspected of her murder. "But of course it does not soften the blow of our daughter's death," they added. "We need time to consider the implications of today's news. We will not be making any further statements at this stage and ask for our privacy to be respected."

In France, the lawyer for one of Rezala's French victims said that he intended to bring legal actions against the French and Portuguese governments and the French railways to ensure that the truth of Rezala's four months of murderous vagrancy around France would be exposed in public.

The French justice minister, Elisabeth Guigou, spoke of her "terrible disappointment".

The unofficial version of events in both Portugal and France yesterday was that the Lisbon prison guards had been distracted by the Portugal-France European soccer championship semi-final. The death of Rezala, 21, was announced by the Portuguese news agency soon after 1am Lisbon time but occurred several hours earlier. The France-Portugal match finish soon after 10pm in Lisbon.

The French newspaper Le Monde suggested that, according to its information, Rezala used a cigarette lighter to start the fire, while guards and other prisoners were watching the match. By the time the alarm was raised, he was dying.

French and Portuguese authorities had already been embarrassed by the lapses of security which allowed a French journalist to interview him in a prison hospital two months ago. In the interview with Le Figaro magazine, Rezala confessed to the murder of Isabel Peake, thrown from a night train between Limoges and Paris in October last year, and to the killing of two other women, Corinne Caillaux and Emilie Bazin.

Rezala, who had refused to confess under hours of questioning by French police and magistrates, said that he committed the murders while high on cannabis and bourbon and that he received visions or "flashes" compelling him to kill.

"There's a flash. You see her dead," he said. "It's like a command that you get in the form of a picture and you go ahead and do it." On the murder of Isabel Peake, he said: "She was a very gentle girl. We started chatting at Limoges station at three in the morning... She asked me for my mobile phone and I lent it to her. She telephoned her boyfriend. She took a drag on my joint. Then I got this flash again..." Despite a nationwide alert after he was identified as the likely killer of Ms Caillaux on another overnight train in December, Rezala slipped out of France to Barcelona, where he was arrested on minor theft charges but freed because no international warrant had been issued by France.

He was finally arrested in Lisbon on 11 January but his lawyers have succeeded in delaying his extradition to France by exploiting a series of loopholes in Portuguese law. He was due to be returned to France if his final appeal failed in September.

Maitre Gilbert Collard, lawyer for Ms Caillaux's parents, said the suicide was the latest in a series of "disfunctions of justice", starting with Rezala's escape from France. He said that he intended to bring two actions on behalf of her family, one against the Portuguese and French justice systems and one against the French railways, the SNCF, for failing to protect their passengers.

Mr Collard said that the whole Rezala affair - from his escape, to the repeated delays in his extradition, to his successful suicide, despite a previous attempt in jail in Lisbon in February - had "unfolded in the most questionable possible way." Another lawyer, acting for Ms Caillaux's husband, Xavier, said that his client was torn between frustration and relief at Rezala's death. "My client is deeply disappointed because he will never know the truth of the circumstances his his wife's murder," said Maitre Jean-Noel Lecompte. "But at the same time, it is fair to say, that he feels a certain relief that Rezala will never harm anyone else."

Rezala had previous convictions for male rape and assault. His name was placed on a list of suspects who fitted the profile and description of Isabel Peake's killer soon after her battered and half-naked body was found by a dog walker beside the Limoges-Paris line on 13 October last year.

Magistrates investigating her murder did not circulate his name at the time. He became France's most wanted person only in December after he was identified as the likely murderer of Ms Caillaux aboard a Calais-Vintimiglia night train near Dijon on 13 December.

Investigations at a house where he had been living in Amiens in northern France uncovered the body of Emilie Bazin under a pile of coal. She is believed to have been murdered some time in November.

Despite a nationwide hue and cry, Rezala was able to escape from his parents' home in Marseilles because a formal arrest warrant had not been issued by the magistrate in charge of the case in Dijon. He took a train to Barcelona, where he was arrested for minor theft but released because the French authorities had not yet posted his name with Interpol.

'Sad' suicide 'proves nothing'

BBC News

Thursday, 29 June, 2000

News of the death of murder suspect Sid Ahmed Rezala in a Portuguese prison has prompted a mixed reaction.

The 21-year-old committed suicide on Wednesday while in prison awaiting extradition for the murder of Birmingham University student Isabel Peake in France last year.

Bill Cash, MP for Stone, where Ms Peake's parents live, said: "For the family of Isabel this would appear to be the ultimate proof of his guilt."

But Rezala's French lawyer Jean Claude Richard said: "I find it very surprising that somebody is able to set fire to his cell without being seen or heard. We are very sad that a boy of 21 has died in this way. To us, this does not mean he was guilty."

He said he last saw his client in March, when he was under heavy sedation.

'Sad story'

Rezala's case was looking positive, as he had just heard that his appeal against extradition would be heard by the Portuguese courts, Mr Richard said.

If that appeal had failed, the lawyers were planning on taking his case to the European Court of Human Rights.

He added: "The whole story, from start to finish, is very sad."

Birmingham University Guild of Students' president, Matthew Gorman, said the whole situation was "tragic".

"You can't be happy about it I just think the whole situation is very, very sad and that there are two young people who have died.

"Clearly I would have liked a trial to take place in France but that's not going to be the case."

Mr Gorman said Rezala's suicide "raises questions of guilt" but hoped that it would bring an end to the matter, which had been painful not just for Miss Peake's family but also for her friends and fellow students at the university.

"They are still very upset and every time it flashes up on the news it brings back the memories. Hopefully now this really will be the end of it," he said.

Peake suspect death inquiry

BBC News

Thursday, 29 June, 2000

Portugal's justice department has ordered an inquiry into the prison suicide of the man accused of murdering British student Isabel Peake and two other women.

Sid Ahmed Rezala, 21, is thought to have died from asphyxia due to smoke inhalation soon after setting fire to his mattress in jail in Lisbon, Portugal, on Wednesday night.

He was being held awaiting extradition to France to face trial for the killings.

He was alone in the cell at the time and died soon afterwards.

Lawyers for families of his alleged victims in France angrily condemned what they called the series of blunders that allowed Rezala to escape standing trial.

Full investigation promised

Portuguese Justice Minister Antonio Costa said he deplored the suicide and promised a full investigation, while Mr Rezala's lawyers have asked the consulate in Lisbon for a full explanation of the incident.

Earlier, Isabel Peake's parents said they were shocked at the suicide.

"But of course it does not soften the blow of our daughter's death," Brian and Annie Peake, Barlaston, near Stone, Staffordshire, added in a statement.

"We need time to consider the implications of today's news. We will not be making any further statements at this stage and ask for our privacy to be respected."

Mr Rezala was the prime suspect for the death of Miss Peake, 20, whose partially clothed body was found beside a rail track north of Limoges in France in October last year.

He was also a suspect in the stabbing of Corinne Caillaux, a 36-year-old French woman whose body was found in a sleeper train in Dijon in December last year.

Police believe he was also responsible for the death of Emilie Bazin, 20, whose body was found under a coal pile in the basement of a building in Amiens, north of Paris last December.

The Algerian-born suspect was arrested near Lisbon in January in a joint operation between French and Portuguese police.

Self harm

In March Mr Rezala slashed his arm and neck with a razor blade and was transferred to a prison hospital.

Prison authorities denied it was a suicide attempt. They said he was not badly hurt.

Mr Rezala had been facing extradition to France.

In May the supreme court in Lisbon rejected an application by Mr Rezala to overturn a lower court's decision to extradite him.

He lodged a final appeal against his extradition on 7 June.

Mr Rezala's appeal questioned whether he would face a jail sentence in his home country of more than 25 years, which is the maximum allowed in Portugal.

Under the Portuguese constitution, a defendant cannot be extradited to a country which allows the death sentence or a jail sentence of more than 25 years.

'Confession'

In May the French journal Le Figaro-Magazine published what it claimed was an admission of guilt by Mr Rezala to the three murders.

He said he had experienced a sudden mental "flash" which made him kill.

He was quoted as saying about Ms Peake: "She was very sweet. We got on well together at the station in Limoges. She telephoned her bloke ... and once more I saw the flash."

Ms Peake had been travelling back to England to visit her parents at their home.

Peake suspect's alleged victims

BBC News

Thursday, 29 June, 2000

Sid Ahmed Rezala was the prime suspect for the deaths of three women in France between October and December last year.

His alleged victims were:

Isabel Peake: A 20-year-old French and law student from Barlaston, Staffordshire, who was just two weeks into an exchange programme at the University of Limoges.

On 13 October 1999, she boarded the 0308 train to Paris, on her way home for a visit.

Before dawn, police think she was pushed from the train as it travelled at about 125km/h through the disused station at Chabenet, central France.

A local farmer discovered her partially-clothed and mutilated body later that day, and her baggage was found strewn along the line.

Her parents, Annie and Brian, described her as a "bright, independent, hard-working and kind girl". She had planned to become a lawyer after her studies at Birmingham University.

Taxi drivers in Limoges told police a man fitting Rezala's description was seen chatting to Ms Peake at the town's station on the night of her death.

He had been made to leave a train at Limoges earlier that night for travelling without a ticket.

Corinne Caillaux: A 36-year-old mother of two from Solesmes, northern France, who worked in a doctor's surgery.

On 13 December 1999, she took a sleeper train to visit her mother in the south of France, who was going into hospital for a throat operation.

Guards found her slumped in a pool of blood in a train toilet. She had been stabbed at least 10 times, and died later from her injuries.

Her five-year-old son was found asleep in a nearby carriage.

Relatives described the devoted family woman as "pretty ... and always ready to do a favour".

Guards had cautioned Rezala for travelling on the sleeper train without a ticket.

Emilie Bazin: A 20-year-old sociology student who had befriended Rezala.

Her body was found on 18 December 1999, buried under coal in a cellar of a house where Rezala had rented a room in Amiens, northern France.

Stripped naked and wrapped in a sheet, she had been strangled.

The daughter of a textile magnate, she had been reported missing at the end of October.

The student was reported to have visited Rezala several times when he was in a youth detention centre, and was seen with him at student hang-outs in Amiens.

He was also said to have accompanied her to a bus stop - the last time she was seen alive.

A sinister charmer

BBC News

Thursday, 29 June, 2000

Sid Ahmed Rezala, who committed suicide awaiting extradition for the murder of Isabel Peake, was a personable man and doting father whose life spiralled into violence as a teenager, say those who knew him.

French police believe he was a real-life Jeckyll and Hyde character with a sinister, disturbing side bubbling just below the surface.

He was facing extradition to France over the murder of Isabel Peake, 20, a British exchange student whose battered body was found beside railway tracks in central France in October.

He was also believed to have killed Corinne Caillaux and Emilie Bazin.

Born in El Bar, Algeria, on 13 May 1979, Rezala moved with his parents, two brothers and sister to the southern French port of Marseilles in 1994.

According to friends and officials who dealt with him over the last five years, Rezala showed the first signs of delinquency at the age of 15 shortly after his family moved.

The son of a mechanic, he had done well at school in Algeria, but in Marseille began to spend his time with drug dealers and petty criminals.

His criminal record since obtained by some French newspapers shows as well as petty theft, he had been imprisoned for violent crime and sexual offences, including a serious sexual assault on a 14-year-old boy in 1995.

Rejcetion

But between his jail terms, Rezala successfully worked as an apprentice baker. Good-looking and cheerful, he made friends easily.

He met his girlfriend Nadia Abdelmalek in 1997 and she had his baby daughter a year later.

In the same year he was sent to a young offenders institution at Lyunes, France, for pulling a knife on a French railway employee.

During his incarceration Ms Abdelmalek told him she was setting up home with another man.

Incensed by the rejection, Rezala is thought to have roamed France on near-deserted night trains after his release in June last year - taking revenge on women.

But, despite the innate cunning that allowed him to evade capture for so long, investigators said it was his continuing attachment to Ms Abdelmalek that led to his downfall and subsequent arrest in Lisbon on 12 January.

Confession

Having fled to the Portuguese capital via Spain, Rezala made a phone call to his girlfriend from a public call box - unaware that investigators in France had tapped her phone.

Plainclothes officers swooped and the lengthy judicial process for extradition began.

In a controversial interview in French magazine Le Figaro last month, Rezala confessed to the murder of Ms Peake.

Her told a French journalist Aziz Zemouri that he saw a flash and felt "ordered" to kill her.

High on drink and drugs, he approached her at Limoges train station.

"She was going to Paris and planned to go on to England to see her bloke. She wanted to call him," he told the magazine.

"She asked to use my mobile phone. I lent it to her. I have always helped other people. She telephoned her bloke and took a drag on my joint. I saw that flash again."

Rezala did not describe what happened next but an hour into the journey, Ms Peake was pushed from the train, possibly after a sexual assault.

Rezala added: "If anyone had done that to someone from my family, I would have killed the guilty person, I would have ripped his heart out and I would have eaten it."

The confession prompted fury from Ms Peake's parents and their lawyer claimed Rezala's behaviour, and media interview, were an act to appear mentally unstable because in France a killer with severe psychiatric problems cannot be brought to trial.

French Interior Minister Jean-Pierre Chevenement was also critical and said he doubted the article's authenticity.

But French police were reported to have said that Rezala made similar comments in off-the-record conversations with them.

Peake murder suspect slashes his neck in jail

By John Lichfield - Independent.co.uk

Wednesday, 19 January 2000

Sid Ahmed Rezala, the man suspected of murdering the British student Isabel Peake and two other women in France, has slashed his neck and wrist in prison.

Sid Ahmed Rezala, the man suspected of murdering the British student Isabel Peake and two other women in France, has slashed his neck and wrist in prison.

Portuguese prison officials said Mr Rezala, 20, did not injure himself seriously, and described the incident as "attention-seeking" rather than suicidal. What is unclear is how the suspected serial killer - unarmed when he was arrested in Lisbon a week ago - was able to get hold of a knife.

The incident adds to a seriesof official blunders in the Rezala affair. News emerged yesterdat that the extradition request formally sent by France to Portugal last Friday was incomplete. The missing information will be supplied by Paris today or tomorrow, allowing the extradition process to continue after a delay of two or three days.

Meanwhile, Spanish and French officials are blaming each other for the failure to apprehend Mr Rezala more promptly.

He was arrested for theft in Barcelona on 18 December, four days after being identified by French police as the likely murderer of Ms Peake, 20, and Corinne Caillaux, 36. Ms Peake's body was found in October by the side of a railway line in western France. She had been travelling on an overnight train from Limoges to Paris. The arrest also came the day after police in Amiens, northern France, found the body of a third woman, Emilie Bazin, 20, buried beneath a heap of coal in the cellar of a house where Mr Rezala had been living.

Spanish police say they let him go on 24 December, after six days in custody. They say they had no reason to detain him because the French authorities had not yet posted his name with Interpol or under the search arrangements of the Schengen Treaty (the treaty which dismantled systematic checks at continental European borders).

French police deny this. They say Mr Rezala's name was issued to all police forces in France and the other "Schengen" countries, including Spain, on 14 December. Spain says his name was not placed on the Schengen wanted list until the afternoon of 24 December, 10 days after he was first identified as a likely serial killer in France. As a result, Spanish police say Mr Rezala was freed with only a warning; he was not rearrested for three weeks.

Mr Rezala's French lawyers spoke to him in jail in Lisbon yesterday. They are expected to decide in the next coupleof days whether to abandonhis initial objections to a voluntary, "fast-track" extradition. If Mr Rezala insists on fighting his extradition another six weeks could pass before he is returned to France.

'Confession' in Peake murder

BBC News

Friday, 19 May, 2000

A man has reportedly told a French magazine that he is responsible for the deaths of the British student, Isabel Peake, and two other women.

Sid Ahmed Rezala's admission of guilt is reported in the French weekly "Le Figaro-Magazine".

Rezala is said to have experienced a sudden "flash" in his head before the killings.

The body of 20-year-old Isabel Peake was found beside a railway track in central France late last year.

She was going back to her home in Staffordshire when it is believed she was pushed from a speeding overnight train.

Europe-wide search

Algerian-born Rezala, who is 21, was arrested in the Portugese capital Lisbon after police launched a search across Europe.

In "Le Figaro-Magazine", Rezala describes his encounter with Isabel Peake.

He said: "She was very gentle. We got on well at the station in Limoges. She telephoned her boyfriend. Then I had the flash again."

Authorities in France are also linking Rezala to the deaths of Corinne Caillaux - a mother of two who was stabbed on a sleeper train near Dijon - and of sociology student Emilie Bazin.

She was 20 years old, and found strangled in a house in Amiens.

'Regret' for the killings

The magazine claims that Rezala told reporters from his prison hospital that he regretted the pain he had caused the families of the dead women.

Speaking of the deaths of Isabel Peake and Emilie Bazin, he said he had seen a "flash" and had then killed the students as if he were "carrying out an order".

He added: "God help the families. And may He send me misery."

Rezala is fighting attempts by France to extradite him from Portugal to stand trial.

The Portugese Supreme Court is due to give its decision on the extradition request next Wednesday.

Murder suspect 'to be extradited'

BBC News

Tuesday, 14 March, 2000

A Frenchman wanted for questioning in connection with the killing of three women - including UK student Isabel Peake - is to be extradited to France from Portugal, according to a report.

Sid Ahmed Rezala is suspected of murdering 20-year-old Ms Peake while she was in France last October.

The French news agency AFP says it has been told by Mr Rezala's lawyer that a court in Lisbon has authorised his extradition.

Algerian-born Mr Rezala, 20, was arrested in Portugal earlier this year after evading French police who wanted to talk to him about the deaths of Ms Peake and two other women in France, Corinne Caillaux, 36, and Emilie Bazin, 20.

Ms Peake, from Barlaston, Staffordshire, was a student at Birmingham University when she went to France last October.

Her body was found by the side of the main Paris to Limoges railway line in central France.

Ms Caillaux was knifed to death on the Calais-Ventimiglia night train on 14 December.

The body of Ms Bazin, a student, was found in a cellar in the northern city of Amiens on 17 December.

Even with the approval of the extradition request, it is likely to be many months before Mr Rezala can stand trial.

Police reconstruct Isabel train fall

BBC News

Saturday, 15 January, 2000

French investigators say they now know what happened to British student Isabel Peake, after reconstructing the moments leading up to her death.

Police and stunt co-ordinators have re-staged Ms Peake's fall from a train, on the main Toulouse-Paris line at Chabenet, near Chateauroux in central France.

They threw a dummy of the same size and weight as the 20-year-old Birmingham University student, and wearing the same clothes, from a train as it passed Chabenet at about 125kph (80mph).

They repeated the exercise four times, from four different positions, in attempts to determine whether Ms Peake fell, jumped or was pushed.

Colonel Bruno Hemar, part of the Chateauroux based inquiry team, said: "We are trying to recreate the exact conditions of the night the student was travelling, the fall, and especially how she came to be unclothed."

It was near the station at Chabenet that the badly injured body of the 20-year-old was found on 13 October last year.

Her body was found to be naked up to the waist, although forensic scientists found no evidence that she had been raped.

Police had also not been certain whether Ms Peake was the victim of an accident, or of one or more assailants.

During the reconstruction, a man succeeded in pushing the dummies out of the train without assistance. Two were pushed through a window, two from a carriage door.

Police also needed to know what effect the fall would have had on Ms Peake's clothes.

The first dummy had its head torn off by the fall. The damage to the others was also severe, the limbs dislocated and the clothing torn to shreds.

After the reconstructions, the two examining magistrates, Michel Bonnieu and Jean Dematteis, expressed their "very great satisfaction" with the information gained from them.

"We now know what happened," Mr Dematteis said, without elaborating.

The prosecutor at Chateauroux, Christian Ponsard, said that as the day progressed, the theory of an accident became increasingly improbable.

However, he told a news conference that it was too early to make public the investigators' opinions about what happened to Ms Peake.

"There are still many theories that we have but we will have more or less convincing evidence and there will be some theories that are more convincing than others," he said.

Investigators will be studying taped video evidence from five cameras placed at the trackside, which filmed the reconstructions.

Two British officers flew out from Birmingham on Friday to oversee the reconstruction, although they are not officially involved in the inquiry.

French police have been broadly criticised for the inquiry into Ms Peake's death, accused of a series of blunders and a failure to address the seriousness of the crime early enough.

Journalists in France expressed surprise at the scale of the high-profile reconstruction - a rare event in France - and said it was being staged for the benefit of the British media.

But Mr Ponsard said: "I don't think that since the start of the investigation we have bowed to media pressure. We have taken our time and acted in our own time until the time was right to act.

"This reconstruction had been planned for a long time...we needed to coordinate with the SNCF (the French rail operator) and other organisations. These things are not sorted out overnight," he said.

French authorities are currently waiting to speak to a 20-year-old Marseilles man who was said by witnesses to have chatted to Ms Peake in Limoges shortly before she boarded the train.

Sid Ahmed Rezala has been remanded in custody in the Portuguese capital Lisbon, pending extradition proceedings to France.

He is also wanted for questioning by police in Dijon about the murder of a mother-of-two on a sleeper train, and in Amiens over the death of a female student friend who was found in a coal cellar at his rented accommodation.

French rail murder suspect arrested

BBC News

Tuesday, 11 January, 2000

A man suspected of three murders in France - including that of British student Isabel Peake - has been arrested in Portugal.

French police said Sid Ahmed Rezala was arrested on Tuesday afternoon in the Portuguese capital Lisbon.

The 20-year-old is the chief suspect in the murder of Ms Peake, from Staffordshire, whose body was found near a railway line on 13 October last year.

She had been a passenger on a night train from Limoges to Paris.

Rezala, is also suspected of killing Emile Bazin, a 20-year-old student at Amiens in northern France, and Corinne Caillaux, 36, whose body was found with stab wounds on the night train from Calais to Italy on 14 December.

Posters

Rezala was arrested by French and Portuguese police following a Europe-wide search by detectives.

Thousands of posters featuring Rezala's face, were pasted up across France in a bid to track the fugitive down.

A French police spokesman at Orleans confirmed on Tuesday that Rezala had been arrested.

He said: "At the moment details about the circumstances of the arrest are very sketchy.

"But I can confirm that Rezala was apprehended by officers in Lisbon, Portugal, in the early afternoon."

Time to flee

French police have been accused of bungling the investigation into the murder of Birmingham University student Ms Peake, from Barlaston, Staffordshire, after Rezala escaped arrest in Marseille.

Bureaucracy was blamed for hampering the attempt to arrest him, giving him time to flee.

Rezala has been the chief suspect in the inquiry into Ms Peake's murder since the body of Ms Caillaux was found.

Detectives were able to identify him after his name was taken by an SNCF inspector for travelling on the Calais-Ventimiglia train without a ticket.

He is also thought to resemble a man seen talking to Ms Peake before she boarded the train at Limoges.

Set free

Rezala was freed in June from a prison near the city where he had served time for "voluntary violence with a knife".

He was arrested a month on a high-speed train from Berne to Paris on 13 November - a month after the death of Ms Peake.

French customs officers found him in possession of cannabis, a knife and a tear gas grenade.

But despite being listed as a suspect for the murder, Rezala spent just a few hours in custody before being set free on the orders of the public prosecutor.

He appeared to have slipped through the net again when detectives went to his parents' home in Marseille, where he was believed to be hiding.

Study programme

Due to a delay in asking a judge for a warrant, officers were turned away by the suspect's father - and when they returned the following day Rezala had gone.

Ms Peake was hurled to her death from a train on the first leg of her journey back to her home.

The law and sociology student was in France after starting a year-long study programme in the central French city of Limoges as part of her degree.

Her semi-naked body was discovered by a dog-walker besides the railway tracks at Chabernet, a small disused station 75 miles north of Limoges.

It took police six days to identify Miss Peake and it was first thought she may have fallen accidentally from the train.

French fail to trap murder suspect

BBC News

Sunday, 19 December, 1999

French police have admitted a massive manhunt for the suspected killer of Briton Isabel Peake has failed, amid accusations of a bungled inquiry.

Raids on a series of squats and flats in Marseilles failed to flush out Sid Ahmed Rezala, 20, the convicted rapist thought to have killed Ms Peake and two others in a three-month murder spree across France.

The suspect is feared to have gone into hiding after reporters visited his family home before police were able to produce an arrest warrant.

The delay was caused by bureaucratic wrangling, which has led to accusations that the inquiry has been bungled.

Sources close to inquiry said they were disappointed at failing "to find the bird in its nest" as the search of the Algerian-born fugitive's haunts and potential hiding places continued.

Detectives said they were still confident of capturing Rezala, who is believed to be in the Marseille area without the funds to escape abroad.

A Dijon police spokesman said: "We believe he will find it difficult to leave the Marseille region. In the meantime, all efforts continue to apprehend this man."

Police earlier released four people, said to include one man "close to the family", and said they did not believe relatives of Rezala knew where he was hiding.

Train deaths

Rezala is being hunted in connection with the deaths of Ms Peake and a French woman, Corinne Caillaux, who were both killed on night trains.

The battered body of Ms Peake, a Birmingham University student from Barlaston, Staffordshire, was found by the side of the railway line 75 miles north of Limoges on 13 October. She had been travelling on the Brive to Paris express service.

The body of Ms Caillaux, 36, was found in the lavatory of a train travelling from Calais to Ventimiglia, just over the Italian border, earlier this week.

She had died from multiple stab wounds, including cuts to her throat, during a frenzied attack while her six-year-old son slept in a nearby compartment.

Third victim

After missing Rezala in Marseille, police found a third body in an apartment block in the northern French town of Amiens, known to have been visited regularly by him.

A young woman's corpse was found under a pile of coal in the cellar of the building.

Police say the woman was "very probably" a 20-year-old sociology student, Emilie Bazine, who had been reported missing and who was known to have had a boyfriend called Sid.

After that discovery, the manhunt was stepped up.

The man's father, who lives with his family in the Belle-de-mai area of the city, is said to have made an appeal for his son to come forward to answer police inquiries.

Algerian-born Rezala had a long history of psychiatric illness and a series of convictions for offences including rape, robbery and stabbings.

He has been the chief suspect since the body of Ms Caillaux was found.

Detectives were able to identify him after his name was taken by an SNCF inspector for travelling on the Calais-Ventimiglia train without a ticket.

He is also thought to resemble a man seen talking to Ms Peake before she boarded the train at Limoges.

French police have been criticised in Britain for a series of delays in identifying Ms Peake's body and launching a murder inquiry.

Isabel police accused of blunders

BBC News

Saturday, 18 December, 1999

French police hunting the killer of three young women, including British student Isabel Peake, have been accused of more blunders in their investigation.

Their chief suspect, 20-year-old Sid Ahmed Rezala, is feared to have gone into hiding after police told journalists of his identity before arresting him.

Reporters visited Rezala's family home in Marseille while police were delayed by bureaucratic wrangling over the arrest warrant.

It has since been learned that Rezala spent the night at the house, but vanished before police arrived.

Officers believe Rezala may have used the visit to wash his clothes and destroy vital forensic evidence.

Rezala was being hunted in connection with the deaths of Ms Peake and a French woman, Corinne Caillaux, who were both killed on night trains.

The battered body of Ms Peake, a Birmingham University student from Barlaston, Staffs, was found by the side of the railway line 75 miles north of Limoges on 13 October. She had been travelling on the Brive to Paris express service.

The body of Ms Caillaux, 36, was found in the lavatory of a train travelling from Calais to Ventimiglia, just over the Italian border, earlier this week.

She had died from multiple stab wounds, including cuts to her throat, during a frenzied attack while her six-year-old son slept in a nearby compartment.

Massive hunt

After missing Rezala in Marseille, police found a third body in an apartment block in the northern French town of Amiens, known to have been visited regularly by him.

The young woman's corpse was found under a pile of coal in the cellar of the building.

Police say the woman was "very probably" 20-year-old sociology student, Emilie Bazine, who had been reported missing and who was known to have had a boyfriend called Sid.

After that discovery, the manhunt was stepped up. Trains were stopped and searched in Nice, and about 100 officers were combing Marseille on Saturday.

They said they were confident Rezala was still in the city, because he had no money and no obvious place of refuge.

The man's father, who lives with his family in the Belle-de-mai area of the city, is said to have made an appeal for his son to come forward to answer police inquiries.

Algerian-born Rezala had a long history of psychiatric illness and a series of convictions for offences including rape, robbery and stabbings.

He has been the chief suspect since the body of Ms Caillaux was found.

Detectives were able to identify him after his name was taken by an SNCF inspector for travelling on the Calais-Ventimiglia train without a ticket.

He is also thought to resemble a man seen talking to Ms Peake before she boarded the train at Limoges.

French police have previously been criticised in Britain for a series of delays in identifying Ms Peake's body after its discovery in October and launching a murder inquiry, losing vital days in the hunt for her killer.

Rail murder suspect 'may have fled'

BBC News

Friday, 17 December, 1999

An Algerian suspected of murdering Briton Isabel Peake and another woman on the French railways could have left the country, police have said.

Detectives hunting 20-year-old Sid Ahmed Rezala travelled to the port of Marseille on Thursday following reports that he had been sighted close to his home in the city in the past 48 hours.

He is wanted both for the murder of Birmingham University student Isabel, 20, whose battered body was found by the main railway line near Limoges in October, and French woman Corrine Caillaux on a train near Dijon this week.

Officers conducting a nationwide search for Rezala, who was released from prison in May after serving a sentence for sex offences, have spent the past 24 hours questioning members of his family and acquaintances on his whereabouts.

A spokesman for Dijon police, where a joint inquiry into the Peake and Caillaux killings is based, said: "Inquiries have been carried out in Marseille following a reported sighting of the suspect.

"We are following up a number of lines of inquiry, among them the idea that the man may have fled abroad or disappeared elsewhere in France. Officers will continue their investigations with a view to arresting this man."

'Series of convictions'

French media reports said Rezela's father, who lives with his family in the Belle-de-mai area of Marseille, had made an appeal for his son to come forward to answer police inquiries.

The reports suggested Sid Ahmed, who was born in El Biar, Algeria, has a long history of psychiatric illness and has a series of convictions for offences including rape, robbery and stabbings.

Ms Peake's body was found lying by the side of the main railway line 75 miles north of Limoges on 13 October after either falling or being pushed from the Brive to Paris express in the early hours.

Detectives investigating the killing travelled to Dijon following the discovery early on Tuesday of the body of 36-year-old Ms Caillaux slumped in the toilet of the Calais-Ventimiglia sleeper service.

She died from multiple stab wounds, including cuts to her throat, during a frenzied attack while her six-year-old son slept in a nearby compartment.

Detectives were able to identify Rezala, who has record for petty crime on trains, after his name was taken by an SNCF inspector for travelling on the Calais-Ventimiglia train without a ticket.

He is thought to resemble a man seen talking to Ms Peake before she boarded the train at Limoges.

According to reports in the French media, Rezala, who comes from the Marseille region, may also have had his name taken for travelling without a ticket on the Brive-Paris train before getting off at Limoges.

The arrest of a suspect would be the first major breakthrough in the Isabel Peake inquiry, which has been criticised in Britain for apparent delays in launching a murder hunt and failing to use techniques deployed in this country.

French train murders suspect seen

BBC News

Thursday, 16 December, 1999

Detectives investigating the death of British student Isabel Peake say the main suspect has been spotted recently in Marseille.

The news came after they joined forces with their counterparts in Dijon, who are hunting the murderer of another French woman on a train.

Corrine Cailloux, 36, was found slumped in the toilet of the Calais-Ventimiglia sleeper service in the early hours of Tuesday.

She died from multiple stab wounds, including cuts to her throat, having been attacked while her six-year-old son slept in a nearby compartment.

The 20-year-old male suspect, of Algerian origin and named by French media as Sid Hamed Rezala, was reportedly released from jail in June after serving a sentence for sex offences.

Police said on Thursday he had been seen in Marseille in the previous 48 hours.

The battered body of Ms Peake was found lying by the side of the main railway line 75 miles north of Limoges on 13 October after either falling or being pushed from the Brive to Paris express.

Officers in Dijon confirmed they were still hunting Sid Hamed Rezala, who is said to closely resemble an e-fit issued by police seeking the murderer of Ms Peake.

Hopes for arrest

A Dijon police spokesman did not confirm Rezala's name, but said: "This man has not yet been arrested but our investigation continues. We believe we have identified him fully and hope that an arrest could come quickly."

Detectives were able to identify the suspect, who has a record for petty crime on trains, after his name was taken by an SNCF inspector for travelling on the Calais-Ventimiglia train without a ticket.

He is also thought to resemble a man seen talking to Ms Peake before she boarded the train at Limoges and according to French media reports may also have had his name taken for not travelling with a ticket on that train.

The arrest of a suspect would be the first major breakthrough in the Isabel Peake inquiry, which has been criticised in Britain for apparent delays.

Isabel, from Barlaston, Staffordshire, was on an exchange programme at the University of Limoges and was travelling back to the UK to visit her parents and boyfriend when she was murdered.

Isabel's parents, Anne and Brian Peake, plan to keep up the pressure on the French police in the wake of the latest killing.

They have criticised the initial handling of the case, complaining about a wall of bureaucracy.

Second woman dies on French night train

BBC News

Tuesday, 14 December, 1999

French police have reassured rail passengers after a woman was found stabbed to death on a train, two months after a British student's body was discovered by a railway line.

Police in Orleans investigating the death of 20-year-old Birmingham University student Isabel Peake will be working closely with colleagues in Dijon who are investigating the murder of Corrine Caillaux on Monday.

But Commander Daniel Baude, of Orleans Gendarmerie, said: "It is too early to say what happened or to make any connections with the Peake case. But at first sight, it does not look like there are any similarities."

The body of Ms Caillaux, originally from Solesmes, near Cambrai, in northern France, was found on Tuesday morning in a lavatory by a ticket inspector on the Calais-Ventimiglia sleeper service.

The train was then stopped at Perrigny, near Dijon, where police interviewed passengers.

The carriage where the body was found was later taken away for forensic examination.

The 36-year-old mother-of-two had been travelling with her young son to visit her mother in central France.

The boy, thought to be about five-years-old, was found asleep in a neighbouring compartment. He was taken off the train by paramedics and placed in care.

Isabel Peake's partially-clothed body was found by a railway line near Limoges on 13 October. She was spending a student exchange year in Limoges.

The student from Barlaston, Staffordshire, was going home on an overnight train to Paris - from which French police believe she was pushed or fell.

Commander Baude said that "people should not become obsessively fearful of travelling on trains".

"I don't want to be fatalistic but, unfortunately, we have had two deaths in quick succession and both have happened to be on night trains," he said.

He added that there was no further update on the Peake case but said officers "had not let up" in their efforts.

Student's death 'was not suicide'

BBC News

The parents of a young British woman killed in France have said they are convinced she did not jump to her death from a train.

Anne and Brian Peake, of Barlaston, Staffordshire, were only able to identify their daughter Isabel, 20, from the rings on her fingers after her mutilated body was found by the side of the main Limoges to Paris line last week.

"I'm convinced my daughter did not jump to her death," said Mrs Peake. "She was homesick studying in France, but she was delighted to be coming home to see us.

"She is a dynamic little fighter, not the type to do this sort of thing."

French police say they are keeping an open mind about Miss Peake's death. Clothes and personal effects were found up to six miles down the track, but her handbag and luggage have still not been found.

'Violent impact'

Miss Peake, a third-year student, was just two weeks into an exchange programme at the University of Limoges as part of her four-year undergraduate degree course.

She was returning to Birmingham via Paris and investigators say she had been travelling on the night train from Limoges to Paris.

At a press conference in the town of Chateraoux, inquiry chief Christian Ponsard said: "An autopsy is in progress but preliminary investigations have shown that Isabel suffered an extremely violent impact and that is without a doubt the cause of her death."

He added: "We are led to believe that she fell from a train. Beyond that, all possibilities remain. It is possible it was an accident. It is possible that it was a murder."

'Sexual motive possible'

Miss Peake's body was found clothed in only a T-shirt and underwear, and investigators are looking into the possibility that she was sexually assaulted before her death.

"When you find the body of a 20-year-old woman in suspicious circumstances, you think straight away of a sex attack, but the fact is that I have no proof that it did or did not happen. Examinations are still in progress," Mr Ponsard said.

It is possible that the dead woman's clothes could have been ripped off her body as she fell from the train because of turbulence.

"This is not a criminal investigation yet ... but still an investigation into the cause of Isabel's death," Mr Ponsard stressed.

Train doors 'locked'

But comments by the French railway, SNCF, cast doubt on the theory that Miss Peake was even on the train.

SNCF said the doors of mainline high-speed trains can not be opened between stops and that members of staff were unable to override the safety system.

An SNCF spokesman said it was highly unlikely Miss Peake had fallen from the train she was assumed to be on.

He said that all trains travelling between Limoges and Paris were equipped with a safety system which made it impossible to open a door at speeds of over seven kilometres per hour.

The spokesman said that at the point where Miss Peake's body was discovered trains would normally be travelling at about 160 kilometres per hour.