HÉLÈNE CASTEL, a psychotherapist, stood in the highest Paris criminal court yesterday to analyse the actions of a bank robber — herself.

Castel’s tale marked the epilogue to a quarter century on the run for a one-time outlaw who built a life as a respected professional in Mexico. “The wheel had to come full circle,” she said as she stood to answer charges of armed robbery and hostage-taking. “I never expected to be arrested, but when it happened, everything fell into place. It felt like a cool shower after a long heat-wave.”

As a squat-dwelling student, Castel, now 46, joined three friends in holding up a bank near the Paris Opéra in 1980, a year when violence was hip for would-be revolutionaries. One robber was killed in a shoot-out with police in which they took hostages and badly wounded the manager. Castel escaped on a moped into Montmartre and, by the time she was sentenced to life in her absence, had become Florencia Rivera Martin, psychotherapist and mother in the northern Mexican city of Jalapa.

Two years ago, Nicolas Sarkozy, the Interior Minister, sent his men after her. When Mexican police knocked at her door in May 2004, she had almost got away with her crime. Only four days later the 20-year statute of limitation since conviction would have wiped the slate clean for ever.

Castel was one of the first victims of a unit set up by M Sarkozy to trace long-term fugitives. But she has also drawn sympathy, including that of the court, or so it seemed yesterday.

Judge Dominique Coujard questioned her with a smile about therapeutic techniques. Yves Bot, the Paris chief prosecutor, asked her gently if she believed that she had already been punished enough by 25 years in exile when her three surviving accomplices had served terms and become doctor, historian and businessman.

“I wouldn’t put it like that,” she said. “But I came to realise that my choices produced heavy consequences. There would for ever be a heavy burden on my shoulders.”

Dressed in a dark red shawl and grey slacks, Castel explained how she distanced herself from a violent act that had shattered her emotionally by creating her Mexican identity after arriving with a false passport.

She trained as a therapist and single-handedly brought up Maria, her daughter by a Mexican artist. “ As the years went by, exile became more and more difficult,” she said. “You become more aware of the need for family and the places you grew up in. This must be the lot of immigrants everywhere.” Her year in detention, before being released on bail last July, had served as therapy, she said. “I needed to be reborn in France, to be whole again.”

Castel apologised for the crime: “At the time, it didn’t seem to be a hold-up. It was like going down to the bank for some cash.”

Castel’s Mexican friends, family, former accomplices and her daughter, now a 19-year-old university student, are testifying for her. Lygie de Schulter, honorary French consul in Jalapas, said: “People who knew her were stunned. Florencia was such a likeable woman. She inspired respect. Knowing her, I am convinced that this was an accident of youth.”

Henri Leclerc, Castel’s lawyer, is arguing that she should be given lenient treatment for a youthful folly after which she had led an exemplary life. The court is also being told that she was a reluctant participant in what the media at the time depicted as a Bonnie-and-Clyde style bank raid.

The case has also stirred controversy over France’s “right to be forgotten”. This enables former convicts to have their criminal records erased from the record if they can prove that they have fully rehabilitated themselves.

Once under this protection, any public mention of their past offences is banned. Some media and legal experts are upset that Castel’s now respectable former accomplices must appear in court under their own names. Most media have agreed not to identify them.