Two men charged over death of retired British artist at French home

DAILYMAIL.COM • 3h ago

By NICK PISA IN MONT-DE-MARSAN 12:01 11 Oct 2026, updated 12:09 11 Oct 2026

Two people have been charged following the death of a British pensioner who was found battered to death in his isolated French home.

Retired wood carver John Agner, 85, was found by police with severe head injuries after his stolen Kia car was chased at high speed and crashed in a dead end.

The two men were held along with four others in a multi agency operation which prosecutors revealed on Saturday – revealing one of them was also accused of a second attempted murder.

Mr Agner was found dead two weeks ago outside his house in the hamlet of Verlus an hour north of Pau.

His body was discovered after police chased his car at 75mph in a 50mph zone in the town of Mont-de-Marsan, 25 miles away, and it eventually crashed through the gate of a house.

Using the registration plate officers traced Mr Agner and made the shock discovery after arriving at his home in the early hours of September 26.

Detectives from the highly specialised Toulouse criminal investigation branch were involved in the operation to arrest the six men as well as local police.

Agen Prosecutor Olivier Naboulet revealed the developments in an email statement sent to the Daily Mail and said the ‘eventful case’ had ‘taken a number of turns’.

He added: ‘The investigation has identified several individuals who may have been involved to varying degrees in the events.

‘One of the main suspects was held following a new attempted murder committed on October 6 in Mont-de-Marsan, which triggered the operational phase and a wave of arrests.’

He added searches were also carried out in various locations and all six of those held were accused of involvement in both events with some of them ‘admitting their involvement to varying degrees’.

Prosecutors said the main suspect, a 32 year old man with 21 previous convictions, had been charged with robbery preceded by or accompanied with violence resulting in death following Mr Agner’s murder.

He is also accused of the second attempted murder which took place last week which involved a woman in her 70s who was attacked in her home in Mont-de-Marsan and was smothered but survived.

As with Mr Agner, the car of the victim was stolen but later found by police with officers highlighting the links between both cases.

The second man held in connection with Mr Agner’s death is a 26 year old man and both men – who are local – are being held in custody awaiting trial.

No details of the other four held have been revealed although all are said to be local and currently on bail.

Meanwhile the Daily Mail can reveal after Mr Agner’s car was taken one of those bizarrely told police he was a ‘hitchhiker who had gone out shopping for ham’.

The Daily Mail has located the cul-de-sac in the town of Mont-de-Marsan, 25 miles away where his stolen black £6,000 Kia Ceed crashed after a high speed pursuit, and spoken to the owners of the bungalow where it ended up after ploughing through a gate.

Patrick Bouquet, 70, who lives there with his widowed sister Annick Frias, 68, revealed how the first he knew of what had happened was when police knocked on the home they share in the early hours of the morning.

Mr Bouquet told the Daily Mail: ‘We sleep in the back of the house so didn’t hear any noise or anything. It was only when the police banged on the door at 2am we realised something was wrong.

‘The car was in the front garden, and the gates were open and bucked, I don’t think it was a high-speed crash, which was fortunate otherwise the car would have come through the front of the house.

‘Police were all over the road and then they arrived with a man who was about 60, and I heard him saying he was innocent and that he had gone shopping to buy some ham and was hitchhiking back when the car stopped. It sounded ridiculous, buying ham at 2am and hitchhiking?

‘He kept saying he had nothing to do with it and didn’t know the other people who were in the car, the police said they had escaped, we think over the fence of the last house, which leads onto another road.

‘It wasn’t until later that day when we found out the car had been stolen and belonged to a British man who had been found dead in his garden, about 40km from here, and it’s frightening to think about it.’

They are baffled by the curious case in which Mr Agner was beaten to death at his £250,000 home – with his killers seemingly taking nothing except his eight-year-old Kia Ceed but the Daily Mail can also reveal today that second car is being hunted by police.

Detectives are looking into how the gang arrived at the isolated hamlet where the nearest neighbour is down a small hill 200 metres away and residents in the street where the car was stopped after being spotted speeding at 75mph in a 50mph zone have been asked to help.

They have been given a letter – seen by the Daily Mail (have copy in French) which asks if residents heard or saw anything untoward in the area, particularly Mr Agner’s Kia and a BMW but the make and colour was not identified.

One neighbour has told the Daily Mail that, despite living in a modest property, Mr Agner would indiscreetly boast that he enjoyed considerable wealth.

One wondered whether his loose lipped approach to his finances may have reached the wrong ears at the community centre in Riscle, some 20 minutes’ drive away where he was having lessons to improve his French.

‘Maybe they knew he had money, was vulnerable and lived alone in that isolated farmhouse,’ said one.

The property includes an annex used as a garage and workshop and a two-storey two-bedroom house with a small garden, hardly extensive grounds.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, one 75-year-old expat woman, originally from East Sussex, who lives close by, said: ‘This has left me really shocked, I’m on my own now as my husband recently died, but I knew John and his wife very well.

‘They were a lovely couple, we got on straight away when we met, and we would go out together to go to each other’s houses. John played the guitar – he enjoyed music, they were both very kind people and John would help out by fixing things and installing satellite dishes for expats.

‘John also did archery and he was trying to improve his French, the last time I saw him in Lidl a few weeks ago he said, ‘You are the only English person I’m going to talk to now, everyone else is French’.

She continued: ‘I just don’t understand why these thieves would drive all the way out here – because you have to drive – and then steal John’s car, it just doesn’t make sense.

‘He said they had money, I know he had a few bank accounts as they told me, maybe someone overheard that, the house itself wasn’t full of valuables, a computer, a television, that’s about it, maybe they thought he kept his money at home? But even that doesn’t make sense as nothing was taken.’

Another intriguing possible factor was that John was in the habit of taking in paying guests who were in need of a room for a night.

One British resident said: ‘I did think it was strange he did that, you just don’t know who these people were. They would stay for a night and then move on.

‘John said they were usually cyclists or hikers looking for a bed for the night but to be honest I wouldn’t have done it.’

It’s not clear what Mr Agner did in the UK before he moved to France, but he appears to have spent an extensive amount of time abroad.

Their last known address was in Northumberland where they lived until 2005 and before that they were in Southampton, while in the mid 1980s they were on Stronsay, in the Orkneys where Mr Agner carved a beautiful wooden map of the island which still hangs in a local club.

After that they are thought to have moved to Vancouver in Canada before returning to the UK in the late 1990s and there appears to be no trace of him on French or British company records so what he did for a living before he moved is a mystery.

Prosecutors and police believe the attack happened late on Friday and the murder was only discovered after the stolen car was chased by police at high speed through the town of Mont-de-Marsan, 25 miles away.

Officials said the Kia was pursued for 20 minutes while travelling at 75mph at around 2am last Saturday and it eventually turned down a one way street where four men jumped out and fled on foot and the arrested man is known to police.

Mr Agner, who enjoyed going on bike rides, was described as ‘athletic, fit and sporty’ for his age and ‘younger looking than he was’, with some saying they were not surprised he had put up a fight with his attackers.

Another expat said: ‘I would see him on his bike around the village, and we would say hello to each other, for an 85-year-old he was in good shape, he liked walking as well. I’m not surprised he put up a fight, but against four wasn’t perhaps a good idea.’

Mr Agner is said to have suffered wounds to his head and a French investigative source said: ‘They were very violent blows, it was a severe beating.’

Mayor Menvielle told the Mail: ‘Everyone is in shock. Our hamlet has only around 100 people living here and nothing like this has ever happened. It really is deepest rural France, and no one can understand why these people came to John’s house.

‘I saw him two days before he was discovered. It was the Thursday. He asked me to help him book a service for his car as his French wasn’t good enough, so I did. It was for mid-October in Mont-de-Marsan where his car was stopped by the police.

‘Even though they had lived here for 20 years, I didn’t know much about them, they would say hello and come to the town hall for the New Year party and meetings but as they didn’t speak much French they didn’t mix much, although I know they had a few British friends nearby.

He added: ‘It is such an isolated place that you would have to be lost to get here or you would have to know the area, none of the people who live near him heard anything until the police arrived Saturday morning, it’s very strange.’

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