1.   All serious offences had to be investigated by an examining magistrate.

2.   Before an examining magistrate the accused is entitled to legal representation.

3.   But in practice the pretrial process was often conducted not by an examining magistrate but by the prosecutor or the police.

4.   Mrs Villemin had no difficulty in seeing off her first examining magistrate.

5.   The examining magistrate will Decide to send the case to trial, except when proof of innocence is clear.

6.   The process passes into its second stage when the prosecutor submits his dossier to an examining magistrate.

7.   Then the examining magistrate changed his mind, released Mr Laroche and charged Mrs Villemin with killing her own son.

8.   Then the original examining magistrate was dismissed from the case for making such a muddle of it.

9.   The charges, predicted in July and August, were brought by Renaud Van Ruymbeke, an examining magistrate in Rennes.

10.   Jalloud also invited a French examining magistrate, Jean-Louis Bruguire, to return, but not aboard a warship.