| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Cult leader escapes from French jail in helicopter |
| 2009-04-28 |
| A cult leader jailed for sex attacks on children escaped in a helicopter from a prison on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion on Monday, the regional administration said. Oooh! Oooh! I seen this movie! It has Jackie Chan in it, right? Juliano Verbard, who was serving a 15-year term for rapes and sex assaults on children, and two of his jailed followers were hauled on board a chopper hijacked by three accomplices, said senior official Jean-Francois "We expect an arrest momentarily!" The helicopter landed on waste ground a few hundred metres away and the gang escaped in a van that had been waiting for them, he said. And they all had Uzis and MAT-79s and Schmeissers and they were shooting out the back of the van and police cars were exploding and running into each other... The two crew members were unhurt and are assisting police. "Ohhhh! My head!" "Did you get a look at your attackers, Jean-Pierre?" "No, Inspector! They conked us from behind!" Earlier, the hijackers had boarded the chopper pretending to be tourists, before seizing control and directing the pilots to Domenjod prison, where it landed in the exercise yard and took on the escapees. "One of them put a gun to my temple while another threatened to set fire to a bottle of petrol he had in his hand with a cigarette lighter," the pilot told local broadcaster Antenne Reunion. I've seen that movie before, many, many times. It still works. Every movie I saw, the pilot was really in on the scam ... Verbard, 27, was the guru of the self-styled "Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary", a cult with no connection to mainstream Catholic institutions, on the island of Reunion, a French territory in the Indian Ocean. He escaped along with two followers, the father and son duo Alexin Jismy and Fabrice Michel, who were jailed for their part in a kidnap. "Alexin, Fabrice, to the chopper! The van awaits!" Fabrice turns traitor, though. I remember that part. And he blows up the good guy's young wife when he kabooms the car. And then he goes on the lam. There's this really great scene where they catch up with him in a pizza shop in Buffalo, and the guy plugs him and he sez "Michel Cour de Lion sends his regards, Fabrice!" He was jailed in February 2008 for attacks on children aged nine and 13, whose mother was the sect's treasurer. He is also under investigation in two other cases, another alleged sex attack and the kidnap of a 12-year-old. At the time of his trial, psychiatrist Gerard Toulfayan described him as "a extremely powerful manipulator with great intelligence." Jim Jones...with a French accent. "So, Professor Verbard! We meet again!" "[Gasp!] Inspector Camembert!" "You'll find the door is barred this time! And the house is surrounded! Legume! Take his... ummm... whatever that is!" Verbard launched his cult in 2002 after convincing scores of followers that the Virgin Mary appeared to him every month. "Mother Mary comes to me!" Adepts paid 20 euros (26 dollars) each for the honour of taking part in an appearance ceremony. "Speaking words of wisdom!" According to Verbard, Mary called him her "Lily of Love". "Let it be!" Authorities attempted to dismantle the sect after it was implicated in the kidnap of 12-year-old Alexandre, a boy that Verbard claimed was destined to become his successor at the head of the group. "Yes! Get the boy! He is the one foretold in the prophesy!" Spectacular helicopter escapes have become a regular embarrassment for French penal authorities and, unlike Reunion's Domenjod, jails in mainland France now often have protective nets over their exercise yards. Since 1986, there have been 10 escapes from French jails in helicopters, most recently in July 2007 when gangster and murderer Pascal Payet managed to get out of Grasse prison in a hijacked chopper. It was Payet's second successful helicopter jailbreak, and he was convicted or organising a third which rescued some of his accomplices. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #3 really? sexual attacks on nine and thirteen yr olds are illegal? Have you told the Imams? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2009-04-28 18:30 |
| #2 Some strategically placed 10' poles would take care of this problem. Arming the guards might help too. I find it hard to believe that the helicopter doesn't have some holes in it. |
| Posted by: tipover 2009-04-28 11:07 |
| #1 Saw headline -- thought they were talkin' about Bambi. |
| Posted by: Fester Gluse8182 2009-04-28 10:17 |