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.

Belgium has issued an international arrest warrant for Chad’s former leader Hissene Habre, charging him with atrocities during his 1982-1990 rule, lawyers said today.

CHILD rapist Marc Dutroux has claimed he was the scapegoat for a shadowy paedophile gang, as for the first time he gave graphic evidence yesterday at a trial that has Belgium in its lurid grip.