Murder of Céline Figard
French murder case / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Céline Figard (French pronunciation: [selin fiɡaʁ]; 23 May 1976[2] – 19 December 1995) was a French woman who went missing and was murdered during a visit to the United Kingdom in December 1995. She accepted a lift from a lorry driver at the Chieveley services on the M4 in Chieveley, Berkshire, on 19 December, but never arrived at her destination. Following an appeal for information on her whereabouts and police enquiries, her body was discovered on 29 December, at a lay-by on the A449 in Hawford, Worcestershire. A post-mortem examination determined she had been strangled and bludgeoned to death.
Céline Figard | |
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![]() Undated photograph of Figard | |
Pronunciation | French pronunciation: [selin fiɡaʁ] |
Born | (1976-05-23)23 May 1976 Besançon, France |
Disappeared | 19 December 1995 Chieveley, Berkshire, United Kingdom |
Died | 19 December 1995 (aged 19) United Kingdom |
Cause of death | Murder by strangulation and bludgeoning |
Body discovered | Hawford, Worcestershire, United Kingdom[1] |
Resting place | Scey-sur-Saône-et-Saint-Albin, Haute-Saône, France |
Occupation | Accountancy student |
The case received extensive news coverage in the UK around the Christmas and New Year period, amid fears that it could be linked to a series of killings around the English Midlands, which police called the work of a "Midlands Ripper". The murder investigation included the UK's first national DNA screening programme in the hunt for a murder suspect, covering over 5,000 people.
Stuart William Morgan, a 36-year-old lorry driver from Poole, Dorset, was arrested in February 1996 after a colleague recognised his image from a photofit. Morgan was later charged with Figard's murder, and convicted in October. Detectives concluded that after raping, strangling and bludgeoning her, he carried her body in his vehicle for ten days over the Christmas period before dumping it. Morgan was given a life sentence, with a recommendation to serve at least twenty years. An appeal in February 1998 was rejected by the Court of Appeal, and in 2009 the High Court turned down his application for a review of the length of his sentence. He became eligible for parole in February 2016, and has continued to maintain his innocence. He remains imprisoned at HM Prison Frankland as of 2022, having had his most recent application for parole rejected earlier in the year.
Figard was buried in the French village of Scey-sur-Saône-et-Saint-Albin, Haute-Saône, at a service attended by her family, friends and politicians in January 1996. In the UK, she is remembered in a memorial garden established at a church in the Worcestershire village of Ombersley, close to where her body was discovered.