Belgian 'Monster' Goes On Trial

[Guest amnesic]

The minute i read the first paragraph i was reminded of Through a Glass, Darkly

Belgian 'Monster' Goes On Trial

Belgium's most hated man Marc Dutroux has gone on trial more than seven years after he was arrested for the abduction, rape and murder of four girls.

Two of the alleged victims were just eight years old when they starved to death in makeshift dungeons under one of his houses.

The 47-year-old former electrician, dubbed the "Monster of Charleroi", also faces charges of abducting two other girls who survived.

Dutroux, speaking from behind a bulletproof screen, addressed the court only to confirm his name and that he was unemployed.

The trial is taking place in the southeastern town of Arlon, near where the crimes were said to have been committed in 1996.

It is expected to last at least two months.

Dutroux will be joined by his co-defendants later in the week, possibly Wednesday.

Belgians have been horrified by the incompetence of the police investigation and the length of time it has taken to put Dutroux on trial.

The delay was caused mainly by investigating magistrates bickering endlesly over whether he was a loner or part of a paedophilia network.

Dutroux has already spent three years in prison for the abduction and rape of minors in the mid-1980s.

He was on parole when the latest set of offences allegedly took place.

The prosecution claims Dutroux was helped by his wife, Michelle Martin, and two others, Michel Lelievre and Michel Nihoul.

Martin, 45, is accused of conspiracy; Lelievre, 32, faces various kidnapping, rape and drugs possession charges; Nihoul, 62, faces charges of kidnap.

[Guest icubud]

More info on this case ----->

Defendant in notorious Belgian child sex murder case blames co-accused

Canadian Press

Wednesday, March 03, 2004

ARLON, Belgium (AP) - Testifying at his own trial for kidnapping, abusing and killing young girls in the mid-1990s, Marc Dutroux said Wednesday he built and wired a secret cell in his basement for the victims on orders of a child-sex network operating in Belgium.

"It was urgent to work quickly because we had to get the girls," Dutroux told Judge Stephane Goux and a jury of six men and six women.

"Nihoul wanted the girls," he said of Michel Nihoul, one of three co-defendants in a trial that comes almost eight years after events that shocked Belgium as much for inept police work as for the depravity of the acts of which Dutroux is accused.

When Dutroux mentioned his name, Nihoul grabbed the phone to call his lawyer from the defendants' box, which is protected by bulletproof glass.

"I did all the electrical work (in the basement cell) myself," said Dutroux of the dungeon where the prosecution alleges young girls were held hostage and abused.

"I put in three different lights to light up the place really well," said Dutroux.

He said he was helped in that by Bernard Weinstein, a friend he is accused of killing and whose body was found in a garden behind Dutroux' home in the central Belgian town Sars-la-Buissiere on Aug. 17, 1996.

That same day, police found also the bodies of Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo, both eight, who disappeared June 24, 1995.

Dutroux entered no plea, which is possible in Belgium. Belgian law requires defendants to take the stand and answer questions from the judge but they are not under oath.

The judge asked Dutroux about his parents and education but the defendant repeatedly sought to turn the conversation to a child-sex network.

"A big crime ring," he called it.

The trial focuses on the fate of six girls, randomly kidnapped and abused in a cell behind a custom-built, swing-away door in a cellar in one of Dutroux's seven decrepit homes.

Four died and two were rescued. Aggravating the pain of victims' families has been shoddy police work that let a previously convicted child rapist operate unchecked.

Dutroux received a 13-year prison term in 1989 for abducting and raping several young women, including a minor. Paroled in 1995, he allegedly returned to kidnapping, abusing and killing girls.

In the last eight years, investigators have bickered over whether Dutroux was a loner or part of a pedophilia network.

"I cannot get a presumption of innocence here," Dutroux testified.

"I want to get to the truth. I want to have a fair trial."

Dutroux was allegedly helped by his ex-wife, Michelle Martin, 44, who authorities said sometimes drove the kidnap van; Michel Lelievre, 32, and Nihoul, a 62-year-old Brussels lawyer.

Dutroux, Martin and Lelievre were arrested Aug. 13, 1996, a week after Laetitia Delhez, then 14, disappeared. Dutroux's van was spotted near a swimming pool where Laetitia was last seen.

She and another victim, Sabine Dardenne, then 12, were rescued from Dutroux's cellar Aug. 15, 1996. Police found the bodies of four girls in two different backyard graves Aug. 17 and Sept. 3, 1996. Two are believed to have been drugged and buried alive.

Dutroux said after his arrest he had no lawyer and gave police "a statement that was stuffed with lies."

He denied kidnapping Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo, the two eight-year-olds who went missing in mid-1995. But he said he took the blame partly because "I tried to protect my wife and tried to diminish her involvement."

He said Weinstein sexually abused Melissa when she and Julie were held in Dutroux's dungeon.

Prosecutors believe they starved to death because Dutroux's wife neglected to feed them when Dutroux was in prison for car theft for four months in early 1996.

Dutroux testified he came home one day in 1995 to find Weinstein, Lelievre and his wife at his kitchen table and Julie and Melissa in his house.

Dutroux was taken aback by the public impression of him as a pedophile.

"This is not pedophilia," he told Judge Goux.

"I didn't know what pedophilia was then...At the time, homosexuality and pedophilia was the same for me. It was foreign."

Over 100 people lined up in the cold early hours to vie for one of 50 standing-room places in the public gallery.

© Copyright 2004 The Canadian Press