A Frenchwoman nicknamed the “Black Widow of the Côte d’Azur” has gone on trial accused of killing two elderly men for their money and poisoning two others.



Patricia Dagorn was described in police reports as a “venal and unscrupulous” woman who preyed on the affections of her ageing and wealthy lovers.

She was accused of murder, poisoning and the administration of harmful substances as the four-day hearing in Nice opened on Monday.

Prosecutors say Dagorn is a serial poisoner who seduced her elderly victims and “siphoned off” their fortunes while secretly administering medication to weaken them. Prosecutors will request a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Dagorn, who is serving a five-year jail term for theft, fraud and kidnapping, vehemently denies the accusations. Her legal team is seeking an acquittal insisting there is a “cruel absence” of evidence to convict her.

Suspicions were first raised in July 2011 when the body of Michel Kneffel, a man in his 60s, was found lying in a pool of blood in a flat in Nice. Dagorn had been living with Kneffel, but police concluded there was no evidence she was involved in his death.

A year later, Dagorn was accused of attacking 87-year-old Robert Mazereau, who had allegedly allowed her to live with him in return for sex.

Detectives investigating the Mazereau attack, for which Dagorn was sentenced to five years in 2013, found bottles of Valium and documents in the names of a dozen different men – including bank details, cheque books, identity papers and a health card – in her possession.

Investigators looked into other local unsolved cases and came across the mysterious demise of Francesco Filippone, 85, whose badly decomposed body was discovered in a bath at his home in Mouans-Sartoux in the hills behind Cannes, in February 2011.

Robert Vaux, one of Dagorn’s alleged victims. Photograph: Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images

They also found that shortly before the gruesome discovery, Dagorn had cashed a cheque for €21,000 (£18,600) made out by Filippone. She told police he had given her the money to help her open a jewellery shop.

Prosecutors say Dagorn, a divorced law graduate, met at least 20 men in the Côte d’Azur in 2011 and 2012 mostly via a matchmaking agency, but also through small ads in the local papers and by approaching elderly men in the street.

Jean-Michel Prêtre, the Nice prosecutor, described the accused as a “manipulator and seductress”.

“She would be full of empathy for these men, would gain their confidence, siphon off their money and end up by working out how to make them disappear,” he said.

Two of her alleged victims, Ange Pisciotta, 82, and Robert Vaux, 91, are civil parties to the trial.

Dagorn is accused of having administered prescription drugs to both Pisciotta and Vaux to weaken them. Vaux told police he believed Dagorn was his “great love” before becoming disenchanted. He said his health “declined alarmingly” after meeting her. Other alleged victims spoke of suddenly becoming confused to the point of becoming unconscious, claiming Dagorn took advantage of their weak state of health to persuade them to sign cheques, pay off her debts or change their will.

Dagorn’s lawyer Georges Rimondi told journalists: “She contests in their entirety the allegations against her.”

Cédric Huissoud, a second lawyer in Dagorn’s defence team, added there was a “cruel absence” of evidence against her.

“For five years she’s explained that apart from meeting men with whom she found solace to end her own loneliness, she has nothing to do with the accusations against her today. We have five days to demonstrate that beyond the suspicions, beyond the devilish side people have wanted to give this story, the evidence in the file is sorely lacking. Under the pretext that she was in contact with these men, she is said to be the cause of all their ills.”

However, psychiatric reports ordered by the investigating judge before the trial, suggested Dagorn was selfish, venal, unscrupulous and had a “calculating mind”.

The trial is expected to last until Thursday.