French Alps shootings: detectives head to UK

Gendarmes from Annecy plan to search victims' Surrey home while concern grows for four-year-old's welfare

Saad al-Hilli, 50, whose two children, Zehab, eight and four-year-old Zaina survived the gun attack. Photograph: Enterprise News and Pictures

A team of French detectives is to work with British police in the desperate search for clues as to why a British family was murdered along with a passing cyclist on a secluded French hillside.

The detectives are to request permission to search the Surrey home of Saad al-Hilli and his wife, Ikbal, and speak to the dead man's brother, Zaid, after claims there may have been a dispute in the family over money.

French officials said this was one line of inquiry among others and Zaid has reportedly told police he denies any involvement.

More than 48 hours after the Hillis were killed and a 77-year-old woman and a cyclist were gunned down in cold blood with a bullet to each of their heads, French officials revealed they had confirmed the couple's identity by asking their four-year-old daughter, Zeena.

In the presence of a French child psychologist, the orphaned girl, who spent eight hours cowering in terror under the body of her mother before being discovered, was shown photographs of her parents from passports found in the car where they were killed.

Eric Maillaud, the public prosecutor, said she had responded in "childish language" saying: "Yes, that's my mummy. And that's my daddy."

The girl also identified a photograph of her older sister, Zainab, aged seven, who was shot, bludgeoned and left for dead near the car, parked in an Alpine beauty spot.

Shortly after Zeena was found, French police said the best place for the orphaned girl was "back with what's left of her family", and that they had taken a softly-softly approach to questioning her. But British experts expressed surprise that she has not been reunited with a relative or family friend already.

Maillaud said the French authorities hoped to hand the child over to relatives said to be waiting to fly to France to collect the child, "as soon as possible". "The girls have to be our first priority," he said.

Three French detectives flew to London to co-ordinate the inquiry with the British authorities, and a fourth was expected . Maillaud said investigators from both countries were co-operating "100%". He added that the relationship between Hilli, a 50-year-old aerospace engineer, and his brother Zaid, and rumours of a dispute over money and a family inheritance were the primary, but not exclusive, line of inquiry for the moment.

"We hope he will be heard as a witness, but that doesn't mean he is suspect number one," he said.

Maillaud said Zaid had first gone to police to ask about his brother after learning from the TV news he had been murdered in France. "He was worried and went to make inquiries," he said.

When reports emerged claiming the brothers had been in dispute over money, Zaid returned to the police to deny there had been any bad feeling between them.

"We were given information from a British police source that there was a conflict between the two brothers. A conflict about money. Now we understand Mr Hilli's brother has said there was no conflict," added Maillaud.

He said police had found a further 10 cartridges from an automatic pistol following the removal of the family's BMW estate car from the isolated car park at the end of the narrow Route de la Combe d'Ire, bringing the total number of cartridges to 25.

He had no idea if there was more than one killer or more than one weapon. "Was the family targeted? Honestly we don't know. The hypothesis [of a family row] has come out because there appears to have been some legal action between the brothers. But it's still just one line of inquiry because there is also the profession of the victim and even the fact that he was born in Iraq, that might be important," said Maillaud.

He said the younger girl, who is in hospital under the care of a child psychologist and under armed protection, had been interviewed by detectives in the presence of an English-speaking representative from the British embassy.

French police said armed gendarmes were also outside Zainab's room in hospital at Grenoble, changing shifts every four hours. She is still in an induced coma but said to be stable.

"Nothing has been left to chance," a gendarme told Le Figaro. "We would not hesitate to move her even 500km away if we felt that someone could disturb her in any way."

The paper said two "softly spoken gendarmes" who specialised in dealing with traumatised children had questioned Zeena twice on Friday with the help of a translator. Her room has been filled with bright colours, teddy bears and small chairs to "create an agreeable and comforting environment", an investigator said.

"It is not a case of conducting traditional questioning, but building up a kind of fluid dialogue in the tone of a conversation without breaks so the child can bring up the event herself without a direct question being asked. But a child of four knows very well what she has heard and experienced."

The British ambassador, Sir Peter Ricketts, said consular staff were staying with the girl "round the clock".

Maillaud said: "Physically she is very well; she is being protected by a gendarme and has a nurse with her. She has been told her family is dead. I don't know how you tell a four-year-old that she will never see her family again, but she knows."

"She is only four so what she has been able to tell us is more about the ambiance. She has spoken of hearing noises and cries and told us she was afraid so she hid.

"Our priority now is to get this poor little girl reunited with one of her relatives and back with family members. I understand there are members of the family ready to come to France to get her."

But Michael Hughesman, who provides post-traumatic psychological support to schools, said universally accepted good child protection practice meant the girl should have been reconciled with a familiar adult she could "emotionally cling to as an urgent priority".

He added: "Until the child is reunited with an adult she knows and trusts, she is likely to continue to vividly replay in her head those hours in which her parents were murdered and the eight hours that came afterwards, when she was left alone in the car with the bodies. She is likely to continue to intensely relive those experiences and memories until she finds an attachment figure who can bring her back to some sort of grounded reality.

"The only person who can do that is an adult she has known for a substantial period of time and already trusts. This little girl will be looking for a suitable adult to cling to. It's vital for her recovery process."

Gordon Milson, a clinical psychologist, agreed: "She will be stuck in that traumatic situation and living in a distorted reality until she is reunited with people, objects and environments with which she is familiar and with which she feels safe.

"She will be unable to be certain she is safe and the threat is even over until that happens. Her only instinct for finding solace will be with an adult she already knows."

But Julie Stokes, a consultant clinical psychologist and founder of the childhood bereavement charity Winston's Wish, in London, said the child's age might protect her "even if something goes drastically wrong [with the way she is treated] in the first few days".

Stokes, who was given an OBE for her work with bereaved children and runs a service at the charity for children whose parents have been murdered, said: "While older children can become fixated on things that go wrong in the first few days after the traumatic event but the memories of younger children are different.

"Their brains have a natural defence mechanism that protects them from quite a lot of horror. I would be hopeful that this mechanism could protect this child now."

Investigators are waiting for doctors to let them to question Zainab, who is in an artificially induced coma to aid recovery.

"The elder girl is not in a state to speak and we will have to wait for a go-ahead from the doctors before talking to her. She is a key witness for us, which we know is terrible for her.

"They say seven is the age of reason and we just hope she can give us some descriptions, some details of clothes, colours of skin, anything that could lead us to who killed her parents."

Surrey police said in a statement: "This is a tragic incident and at this time our thoughts are with the family and friends of all those involved.

"This is a complex and ongoing investigation being led by the French authorities and Surrey police is providing any assistance possible.

"As part of this, the force is facilitating a visit by French investigators to conduct inquiries in the UK.

"We are unable to confirm any details around the investigation and it is inappropriate to make any further comment at this time."

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Ditulis oleh: Unknown - Friday, September 7, 2012