I kidnapped my daughter's killer - it was the only way I could get justice

When 14-year-old Kalinka was found dead in 1982, her father Andre Bamberski, a quietly-spoken Catholic man, took the law into his own hands

Justice: Andre Bamberski (right) kidnapped the killer of his daughter, Dr Dieter Krombach (left)

For three long decades Andre Bamberski waged a tireless campaign to win justice for the daughter he was sure had been murdered. Pretty, sports-mad Kalinka, 14, was found dead in suspicious circumstances in 1982.

Her mum’s new husband, a German doctor, had given her an injection at their lakeside home in Bavaria.

But a bungled investigation, disputed post mortem and conflicting medical evidence left Andre convinced she had been drugged, raped and murdered by the stepfather, suave cardiologist Dr Dieter Krombach.

This was the start of an epic quest which saw French accountant Andre, now 76, take on police, prosecutors and the European Court of Justice in a bid to get Krombach extradited to France and face trial.

It took over his life and cost him a fortune. And when all official channels finally failed, Andre, a quietly-spoken and devout Roman Catholic, decided to take the law into his own hands.

In a plot worthy of any action movie, the grey-haired dad hired two men to kidnap Krombach from Germany and take him across the border into France.

He was then dumped – bound, gagged and bleeding – outside a prosecutor’s office in the town of Mulhouse, where police found him after a phone tip off from a mysterious Russian – in fact Andre putting on an accent.

The desperate ploy worked. In 2011, Krombach, 75, was convicted and jailed for 15 years for administering the injection which killed his stepdaughter.

But the kidnappers – Kosovan Anton Krasniqi and Kacha Bablovani from Georgia – were caught and jailed too, and found to be acting on the orders of Andre Bamberski.

After 30 years fighting for justice for his daughter, he didn’t care if he went to jail as long as her killer was locked up too.

Suspended: Andre was spared an immediate jail sentence after ordering the kidnap

On Wednesday of this week he was finally convicted of ordering the kidnap. But in one final extraordinary twist, he escaped jail and was given just a one year suspended sentence.

The prosecutor even praised Andre, now something of a French folk hero, for his “courage and perseverance”.

The saga began in July 1982 when Andre’s ex-wife Daniele rang to break the news that Kalinka, their bubbly blue-eyed blonde daughter who loved windsurfing and ice-skating, had been found dead in bed by Krombach.

The doctor told investigators that the evening before he had injected her with iron and cobalt to treat anaemia and given her a sleeping tablet.

But a post mortem later found evidence that the teenager had been raped and had choked on her own vomit while she was unconscious.

Despite this, Krombach, a former diplomat with friends in high places, was never formally interviewed. German ­prosecutors decided Kalinka’s death was an accident and closed the case.

Andre, whose son Nicolas had also lived with Krombach, fought to get it reopened. When that failed he travelled to Germany and began delivering leaflets to Krombach’s neighbours accusing him of raping and murdering his daughter.

Krombach sued for defamation and was awarded damages of £150,000 – which Andre never paid.

Attempts to get Krombach extradited to France failed but Andre began building up evidence about errors in the autopsy and investigation. He admits there were times when he felt like giving up, but explained: “It was not possible to stop because every day I had more proof.”

In the meantime his ex-wife divorced Krombach in 1989. Then in 1995 a French court decided to try him in his absence. He was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 15 years. But he appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, which later quashed the conviction.

Victim and kidnapper: Kalinka Bamberski with Dieter Krombach

Andre was given new hope in 1997 when Krombach was convicted of drugging and raping a 16-year-old female patient. Five other patients came forward to make complaints of rape against him, but their testimonies were rejected owing to a lack of forensic evidence.

They included two sisters whose mother had been befriended by Krombach. He took them on holiday to London and the south of France where, they alleged, he gave them injections of iron and cobalt and raped them. One was just 14.

For what he did to the 16-year-old girl Krombach was given a two-year suspended sentence and struck-off. But in 2006 he was found to be practising without a medical licence. He was prosecuted and served 18 months in jail.

French authorities eventually issued a European arrest warrant for Krombach but the German authorities continued to block it. Time was running out for Andre, who knew that after 30 years no further action could be taken against Krombach under French law.

“I had enough in my head,” said Andre. “I knew that the French government would do nothing. I knew that the German government would do nothing. I decided that I had to do something.”

He admits that murder even crossed his mind, but it was never a serious option.

“It’s necessary for me to have the legal process,” he said. “To kill him was not the solution. To kill him is not justice. I am too correct. I have always been too correct with everybody, with every institution. And nobody did anything for 27 years. It was too much to bear.”

Andre admits he had tried to hire kidnappers before. But two different criminals simply ran off with £20,000 of his cash. The successful kidnap plot was finally hatched in 2009 when he met Anton ­Krasniqi. And on October 17 that year Krazniqi and Bablovani abducted the doctor from his house in Scheidegg.

Happier times: Kalinka with Andre, brother Nicolas and mother Daniele Gonnin

They bundled him into the car, got him across the Austrian border then into Switzerland and finally to Mulhouse, where French police found him trussed up on the pavement. When he gave his name they arrested him as a wanted man.

Unfortunately for Andre, one of the kidnappers had dropped a piece of paper with his own name and address at Krombach’s house.

Both abductors were traced and phone records led police to Andre, who was found in a Mulhouse hotel room with a bag containing €19,000 (£15,000). He was arrested and charged with ordering the kidnap but released, perhaps by a sympathetic judge, on bail set at precisely €19,000.

Krombach’s lawyers launched seven different attempts to have his trial stopped but in December last year, a Paris court finally found him guility of “wilful violence leading to death without intent” and jailed for 15 years.

Before his own court case this week Andre had pondered the prospect of going to prison himself. “If I have to go, I will go,” he shrugged. “Most important is that Krombach is judged.

“For me, it was necessary to do justice. This is my last fight, and I shall dedicate it to the memory of my daughter.”

After the hearing, walking free from court, he said: “For me, this case was closed in December 2012 when Dr Krombach was convicted for the second time. I will not protest against my suspended sentence.

“I have always admitted I was the central person in organising the abduction and transport of Dr Krombach from Germany to France.

“I hope I can have a normal life now. I am a lot more at peace since his conviction.

“I do not spend every hour, day and night, poring over files about my daughter’s case, which is what I had been doing
for many years.

“Since then I have felt that the promise I made to her, whether that be a promise of justice or a promise of finding the truth, has been fulfilled.

“That was what she merited. She was a wonderful girl who did not deserve to be the victim of rumours about the cause of her death. My work is done.”