Paedophile suspect to face trial over horrific child murders

A BELGIAN court yesterday ordered the trial by jury of Marc Dutroux, nearly seven years after the suspected child killer and paedophile was first arrested over a series of abductions, rapes and murders that shocked the world.

Lawyers said the court in the eastern city of Liege ordered that Dutroux stand trial before an assize court on charges that he kidnapped and murdered four girls, including two eight-year-olds who lived in Liege.

He also stands accused of raping two other girls, who were found alive in the cellar of one of his properties near the city of Charleroi in 1996 after surviving a horrifying ordeal.

The lawyers said that standing trial alongside Dutroux would be his wife Michele Martin, his “right-hand man” Michel Lelievre and a fourth suspect, Michel Nihoul.

Those three defendants are to face charges of kidnapping and complicity. Observers say the Dutroux case is unlikely to come to trial before the end of this year or the start of 2004.

Nihoul has been portrayed as the linchpin of a paedophile ring that included not only Dutroux but also senior Belgian politicians and judges.

Another court ruled in January that there was insufficient evidence to try Nihoul.

The arrest of Dutroux in August 1996 came amid mass protests in Belgium and a worldwide outcry against the sexual abuse of children, prompting crackdowns on child sex crime networks, especially on the Internet.

But lawyers for Dutroux, as well as the murdered girls’ families, are convinced that more than the arrested foursome were involved.

Victor Hissel, a lawyer acting for the families of Dutroux’s alleged victims, accused the authorities of a cover-up during a March court hearing.

“There is a band of organised gangsters nobody sees, not because they don’t exist, but because it’s too much for a sick justice system,” he said.

Dutroux himself, in a television interview taped secretly during a prison visit late last year, insisted the child sex network was real.

“I maintained regular contact with people in this ring. However, the law does not want to investigate this lead,” he said.