Real-life ‘Serpent’ to sue BBC over Jenna Coleman series

The serial killer portrayed in BBC series The Serpent has vowed to sue the broadcaster following his release from a Nepalese prison and return to France.

In an interview with France Info, Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, the convicted killer’s lawyer, said her client’s top priorities include filing lawsuits against the state of Nepal as well as the BBC and Netflix, co-producers of the 2021 series that was inspired by Charles Sobhraj.

Ms Coutant-Peyre accused the BBC/Netflix programme of having “falsified” his reputation “where this is only 30 per cent truth”.

The eight-episode series told the story of attempts made by Dutch diplomat Herman Knippenberg to track down Sobhraj in Thailand. It starred Tahar Rahim as Sobhraj and Jenna Coleman as his girlfriend Marie-Andree Leclerc.

The 78-year-old French national, born to an Indian father and Vietnamese mother, is linked to 20 murders in the 1970s and ‘80s of Western backpackers along the “Hippie Trail” in South Asia. Victims were found strangled, beaten and burned.

He spent 19 years behind bars for the murders of two North American tourists until the Nepalese court ordered his release last week citing his age, declining health, good behaviour and the near completion of his 20-year sentence.

Authorities say Sobhraj posed as a trader in precious gems and befriended mostly young, Western tourists before drugging, robbing and killing his victims. Police dubbed him “The Serpent” because of the way he used fake identities to evade detection.

He is also suspected of having drugged and killed six women in Thailand in the 1970s, and served time in an Indian prison after drugging and robbing a group of French tourists.

He staged a brief escape by drugging the guards but was later caught and served the rest of his sentence. Following his release, he returned to Paris for a few years, but went back to Nepal where he was caught and convicted in the murders of Connie Jo Bronzich and Laurent Carriere.

In an interview on board the flight from Nepal to France on Friday, Mr Sobhraj insisted on his innocence and claimed his conviction was based on fake documents.

“I’m fine. I have a lot of things to do. I have to sue many people, including the state of Nepal,” he told Agence France-Presse.

He added: “The courts in Nepal, from (the) district court to high court to supreme court, all the judges, they were biased against Charles Sobhraj.”