Transgender Killed on Orders of Anti-pornography Crusader, Gov Official

Watchdog named in murder case

[FRANCE] - A SEX and murder case which has shocked France yesterday took its most startling twist yet. A jailed serial killer has admitted the killing a transvestite prostitute - on the orders, he claims, of the anti-pornography crusader who heads France?s broadcasting standards watchdog.

Dominique Baudis, the former mayor of Toulouse, who has made it his mission to keep French television for family viewing only, yesterday asked to be placed under formal investigation for the crime - for his lawyers to stage a full defence.

Several former Toulouse prostitutes had claimed Mr Baudis was a regular at sadomasochistic drugs and sex soirees by Patrice Algre, now serving a life sentence for killing five women.

Algre has confessed before a judge to killing the transvestite, Claude Martinez, as well as a sixth woman, a local prostitute. He claimed in a letter that he killed Martinez at Mr Baudis?s request to silence his blackmail bid - a story Mr Baudis has denounced as "diabolical lies".