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 policeman involved in a search for kidnapped girls who were abused and killed in Belgium eight years ago said today that he is still haunted by how well the chief suspect hid the children.