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.