Survivors finally get justice after eight-year wait

THE case that has kept Belgium on tenterhooks since 1996 finally came to a close yesterday after years of delays and blunders.

It took nearly eight years to come to trial, partly because police were investigating claims that the man at the centre of the case, Marc Dutroux, was part of a wider paedophile ring.

A convicted paedophile, Dutroux was accused of kidnapping and repeatedly raping six girls in the 1990s, and killing four of them.

The court in the south-eastern town of Arlon initially heard the harrowing details of the ordeals the girls suffered, how Dutroux kept them locked in makeshift cells in his basement and regularly raped them.

During the trial, prosecutors depicted Dutroux as a sinister figure, the main perpetrator in seeking out six girls to take to his basement holding cell "where he and others raped, abused and murdered".

They described how four of the girls died, saying Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo two eight-year-old schoolmates starved to death while imprisoned in the basement and were later buried.

An Marchal, 17 and Eefje Lambrecks, 19, were "drugged, wrapped in plastic" before being dumped in a backyard grave.

"The victims were not dead when they were buried according to their autopsies," chief prosecutor Michel Bourlet said.

Testifying shortly after the beginning of the trial, Dutroux admitted kidnapping two teenage girls and raping his captives. He told the court two policemen took part in the kidnappings of An Marchal and Eefje Lambrecks, in August 1995. But he denied kidnapping Julie and Melissa, and all the charges of murder.

Dutroux blamed his ex-wife Michelle Martin for Julie and Melissa's deaths and claimed he had been angry when he came home to find the girls there, but was persuaded by Martin to keep them.

Later in the trial, it emerged Martin had admitted she starved the girls to death while her husband was in prison for several months.

The bungled investigation into the missing girls led many Belgians to believe Dutroux worked under the protection of a child sex ring whose members included influential people.

Dutroux sought to paint himself as the pawn of a still-hidden crime ring that was kidnapping young girls in eastern Europe to become prostitutes a scenario rejected by prosecutors, who said they found no evidence.

The court also heard the testimony of Rene Michaux, a policeman who went looking for Julie and Melissa in Dutroux's basement, but failed to find the door leading to where the children were hidden. He even heard children's voices, but thought they came from the street outside.

On April 19, Sabine Dardenne appeared in court to testify against Dutroux.

Dutroux held her captive for 80 days at his home in 1996 and raped her repeatedly. Ms Dardenne, who was 12 at the time, demanded to know why he had not killed her.

She also said Dutroux was the only man she saw throughout her captivity and the only person who abused her.

A couple of days after Ms Dardenne's testimony, the second survivor, Laetitia Delhez, testified. Aged 14 at the time, Ms Delhez was incarcerated for six days in the same basement cell as Ms Dardenne.

Ms Delhez, now 22, told the court how she was chained to a bed and raped after her abduction in 1996.

Dutroux told the two women he "realised the bad things" he had done and apologised to them, but Ms Dardenne told him to "Go to hell". A week after those painful testimonies, the two women returned to the scene of their incarceration.

Ms Delhez said she wanted to return to the dungeon-like cellar to help her "come to terms" with her ordeal, accompanied by her family, so "they can realise what I went through".

At the end of May, lawyers for the families of Ms Marchal and Ms Lambrecks argued for a guilty verdict, but voiced different opinions on the existence of a wider paedophile ring. Then, in early June, Dutroux's lawyer sensationally called for the suspension of the trial to give investigators time to confirm the existence of such a child sex ring. But the request was rejected by the judge a few days later, and the verdict was finally handed down yesterday.

A friend of Dutroux's, Michel Lelievre, was convicted of complicity in the kidnappings and other charges. Another, Michel Nihoul, was convicted of being part of a gang that smuggled drugs and people into Belgium.

Dutroux case

1993: Marc Dutroux freed early from child sex sentence. Soon afterwards, girls start to disappear near his houses.

August 13, 1996: Dutroux arrested.

August 15, 1996: Sabine Dardenne, aged 12, and Laetitia Delhez, aged 14, found alive in basement.

August 17, 1996: Bodies of Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo, both aged 8, found buried.

September 13, 1996: Bodies of Eefje Lambrecks, aged 19, and An Marchal, aged 17, are found.

March 1, 2004: Dutroux and other suspects go on trial.

Eight years: Time case took to come to court.

500: witnesses heard during trial.

€4.6m: Cost of trial.

440,000: Pages of evidence used in trial.