Jailed serial paedophile and child killer Marc Dutroux is asking Belgian judges to release him after his wife who helped his horrific crimes was granted her freedom last year.

A woman who let two eight-year-old girls starve in a cellar and helped her paedophile husband carry out horrific abuse of others went from prison to a convent amid outrage from Belgians over the early release of one of the country's most despised criminals.

The Beast of Belgium, paedophile Marc Dutroux, faces life in prison after being convicted today of a series of child rapes and murders in a case that has horrified the country for nearly a decade.

The most hated man in Belgium, paedophile Marc Dutroux, was today convicted of the murder of girls he kidnapped and tortured.