Paedophile convicted of girls' murders in Belgium

A convicted child rapist was found guilty today of abducting, raping and murdering two schoolgirls.

The jury needed only one day of deliberations to reach their verdicts on 23 charges at a Liege court after a two-week trial.

Abdallah Aid Oud’s lawyers continued to claim during closing arguments that their client was innocent and played no part in the disappearance of the two girls.

The killings brought new horror to a country still traumatised by the string of murders by child rapist Marc Dutroux a decade ago.