The most hated man in Belgium, Marc Dutroux, was finally convicted yesterday of a series of child rapes and murders that horrified the world. But the outcome of the 15-week trial did not prove the existence of a wider paedophile network.
Jurors returned to the court in the southern Ardennes town of Arlon after four days of deliberations to pronounce Dutroux guilty of kidnapping, raping and imprisoning six girls as well as murdering two of them and a male accomplice he had fallen out with.
The case has had Belgium riveted since the crimes came to light in 1996, triggering mass protests about police and judicial incompetence and leaving strong suspicions of a high-level cover-up about a powerful ring of sex criminals.
Dutroux (47) an unemployed electrician whose calculating and self-centred behaviour in court confirmed the view of him as a manipulative psychopath, faces life in prison. He is expected to be sentenced next week.
He was convicted of killing An Marchal (17) and Eefje Lambrecks (19) as well as his alleged accomplice, Frenchman Bernard Weinstein. He had denied all three charges.
Their bodies were found buried on one of Dutroux’s properties. All had apparently been drugged before being buried alive.
Dutroux admitted kidnapping and sexually abusing two girls — Sabine Dardenne, then 12, and Laetitia Delhez, then 14. The two terrified girls, believing Dutroux’s story that he was protecting them from someone called the ”bad boss”, were rescued from a concealed underground cell in his ”house of horrors” at Marcinelle, near Charleroi, two days before his arrest in August 1996.
Both gave evidence against him as he watched impassively from the bulletproof glass dock.
Ms Dardenne refused to comment on the verdict last night, but her lawyer, Celine Parisse, told reporters: ”Her smile says it all.”
Dutroux’s estranged wife, Michelle Martin, was convicted of imprisonment leading to the deaths of Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo, both eight. They starved to death in the dungeon in early 1996 while her husband was serving a short jail term for car theft.
Dutroux was also convicted of kidnapping them in June 1995, a charge he had denied. He told the court he had put their bodies in the family freezer before burying them.
Michel Lelievre, a third defendant, was convicted of kidnapping and imprisoning four of the girls, as well as drugs charges. Like Martin, he faces 30 years in prison.
In a keenly watched development, the jury split seven to five over whether the fourth defendant, Michel Nihoul, was involved in the kidnappings. He was acquitted after the judges instructed the jurors to consider a lesser charge.
Nihoul, a Brussels business man and sex club habitué, was considered the putative link with the wider criminal network that Dutroux insisted had manipulated him. But no firm evidence emerged to back this up. Prosecutors portrayed Dutroux as an ”isolated predator” helped only by his immediate accomplices.
Many questions about the case remain unanswered, but relatives of the victims reacted positively. ”They are guilty of everything, even the killings, even the torture,” said Paul Marchal, father of An. Jean Lambrecks, father of Eefje, spoke of his ”extraordinary relief”. ”Finally, we can have a normal life again and I can devote myself to my family.” – Guardian Unlimited Â