France's 'HR killer' given life sentence

A man who fatally shot three women he accused of ruining his career has been sentenced to life imprisonment in France.

Gabriel Fortin, 48, was given the maximum sentence for murder and attempted murder by a court in the city of Valence on Wednesday.

This means he will spend up to 22 years behind bars.

Fortin, who was dubbed the "HR killer", was arrested in 2021 - days after the women were shot dead.

Speaking to reporters following the verdict, the lawyer for the family of Géraldine Caclin, one of the victims, told the AFP news agency that Fortin's "only response to life's failures, and we've all experienced them, was to organise this crime."

During his two-week trial, Fortin remained mostly tight-lipped but claimed he was the victim of conspiracies that had led him to be dismissed from roles between 2006 and 2009, as well as spying.

Fortin's lawyers suggested he was mentally unfit to stand trial, claiming he was isolated and suffering from personality disorders.

But prosecutors showed how he had thoroughly researched and plotted the attacks.