Dutroux less a paedophile than an icy-hearted predator

PSYCHIATRISTS say Marc Dutroux — dubbed the “Monster of Charleroi” by the Belgian press — is less a paedophile than an icy-hearted predator with a murderous desire to control his victims.

The public’s shock turned to fury when it emerged not only that police had missed a string of clues that could have led to Dutroux being apprehended earlier, but that he had been released from jail in 1992 after serving just three years of a 13-year sentence for the abduction and rape of five girls.

Dutroux is alleged to have lived on the lucrative proceeds of drug-dealing and trading in stolen cars.

He had a string of convictions for petty crimes before he was arrested, together with his future second wife, in February 1986 for the abductions and rape of five girls.

He was convicted and jailed in 1989 for 13 years, but released three years later under a government scheme that was supposed to monitor sexual offenders in the community.

He was re-arrested in August, 1996, by police investigating the abductions of Sabine Dardenne, then aged 12, and Laetitia Delhez, aged 14. His own mother wrote to the prison director to warn about her son. She complained Dutroux was using supervised visits to his grandmother’s house to write up an inventory of the elderly woman’s possessions, leaving her anxious and distressed.

According to the French newspaper Liberation, the letters went unanswered.

That Dutroux was a sexual predator is not in doubt, but whether he was acting on behalf of a paedophile network was the burning question for many Belgians. According to a report issued by a panel of psychiatrists who analysed him after arrest, Dutroux does not fit the classic profile of a paedophile.