Marc Dutroux

Dutroux had already committed similar crimes (kidnapping and rape of young girls). He had been imprisoned for that in 1989.[6] However, Dutroux was released early, and was thus able to reoffend. He was released in 1991 after only serving three-and-a-half years of a thirteen-year sentence.[7]

Dutroux abducted Axelle D. on 14 December 1985. During her testimony, she told the police that Dutroux's accomplice Peteghem had told her that "he was part of a gang" led by two gang leaders, "an Italian and a crazy stupid one." Jean van Peteghem admitted to having taken part in the abduction. He said he had abducted Axelle D. with Marc Dutroux and Michelle Martin. He had lived with Dutroux after being discharged from the military and having his marriage fail. Peteghem told police that the first victims of his and Dutroux were two girls from Morlanwelz. These two victims were never recovered by police. On 7 June 1985 the first proven abduction by the two took place. They abducted eleven-year-old Sylvie D. On 17 October 1985 the pair abducted Maria V., 19, from Peronnes-lez-Binche. Maria V. also identified a third man that took part in her abduction and appeared to be in his fifties. The man was never found by police. On 17 January 1986 Catherine B., aged 18, was abducted from Obaix. Dutroux had one or two accomplices in her abduction that were never found by police. Peteghem was stationed as army personnel in Germany during that time and could not have assisted Dutroux. On 18 December 1985, Dutroux abducted Élisabeth G., 15, in Pont-à-Celles. Peteghem told police that Dutroux filmed Élisabeth naked and took pictures of her. At the beginning of February 1987, Martin, Dutroux and Peteghem were arrested. This had to a large extent been the fault of Peteghem who had given out a lot of information about him in conversations with the girls, which had been enough for police to identify him. The three were eventually convicted on 26 April 1989. Dutroux received 13½ years. Peteghem received 6½ years and Martin received 5 years. Dutroux received a harsher sentence because he had also committed several robberies with Peteghem. Dutroux was thus additionally convicted for the brutal robbery of a 58-year-old woman. The robbery was also committed with accomplices. One of the accomplices in this robbery was also never found by police.[8]

The early release of Dutroux was against the advice of the public prosecutor and the psychiatrist who had examined him in prison saying Dutroux remained dangerous.[8]

The early release was granted by Melchior Wathelet,[9] who was at that time the Belgian minister of justice.

While in jail Dutroux managed to convince a health professional that he was disabled because of mental illness. He thus was able to collect public assistance from the Belgium government of $1,200 a month. He furthermore convinced the professional that he needed sedatives for sleeping problems. Dutroux later went on to use those sedatives to sedate his victims.[10][11] He owned seven small houses, most of them vacant, and used three of them for the torture of the girls he kidnapped. Even though he owned several houses his state assistance wasn't cut. In his residence in Marcinelle, he constructed a concealed dungeon in the basement. Dutroux has been described by psychiatrists who examined him for trial as a psychopath.[12]

In 1995 Dutroux's mother wrote a letter to the authorities stating that she knew that Dutroux had kidnapped two girls and was keeping them at his house.[36]

After Lejeune and Russo were kidnapped in 1995, it took police 14 months to arrest Dutroux even though he had been a prime suspect from the start and had committed similar crimes before.[37] During the search for Lejeune and Russo, police visited Dutroux's house twice on 13 and 19 December where Lejeune and Russo were held. However, no attempts were made to free them, even though the locksmith who accompanied police officer René Michaux[37] said that he'd heard screams of children coming from inside the house. The locksmith reportedly said, "I'm not leaving before we turn the place upside down. The screams are clearly coming from inside the house," to which Michaux replied, "Who is the police officer here? You or me?"

Around the time of Eefje Lambrecks's and An Marchal's deaths, Weinstein and a man named Philippe Divers stole a van and hid it in a hangar; after it was found there by the hangar's owner, it was taken away by the police. Dutroux and Weinstein suspected that Divers and his friend Pierre Rochow had betrayed them, and on the night of 4 November, wishing to interrogate them about the van, Dutroux and Weinstein lured Divers and Rochow into Weinstein's home in Jumet and drugged and sequestered them, before leaving to go to Rochow's house to search for clues about the van. There they found his girlfriend Bénédicte Jadot, whom they took with them back to Jumet and questioned before leaving again to pick up another person. While they were away, Jadot escaped and alerted a neighbour, who called the police.[17][18] With Weinstein wanted by police, Dutroux decided to kill him to prevent capture. He kidnapped Weinstein and held him in the dungeon at his house in Marcinelle between 13 and 20 November. During this time, he let Julie Lejeune and Mélissa Russo roam freely around the house. After feeding him food laced with Rohypnol, Dutroux placed hose clamps around Weinstein's testicles until Weinstein told him where his money was hidden. Dutroux then killed Weinstein by burying him in a hole on his (Dutroux's) property in Sars-la-Buissière.[19] In December, Dutroux, having been recognised by Rochow, was arrested.[18]

Marc Dutroux was arrested on 6 December 1995 on car theft charges and subsequently convicted to three months in jail.[5] During the three months Lejeune and Russo died of starvation and dehydration in their dungeon cell as the wife of Dutroux didn't feed them, even though she knew that they were there.[37]

During the search of the houses of Dutroux, several video tapes were found. They were never looked at. Some of them showed Dutroux constructing the dungeon in which Lejeune and Russo were held. Had police looked at it, they would have found the dungeon containing Lejeune and Russo.[37] The video tapes had been in possession of the police since December 1995. They had been passed on to the prosecutors in the case but not to the judges.[38] Furthermore, some of the video tapes were returned to Dutroux by police officer René Michaux without ever being looked at.

Michel Bourlet, who was appointed lead investigator, said that some of the video tapes had disappeared and that he wanted to have them all recovered and reviewed.[39]

The videos were reportedly stolen after they were returned to Dutroux.[39] In 1999 some of the tapes were finally reviewed. One of them showed Dutroux raping a young woman in Slovakia.[39] The videos could have made it possible to identify other victims and also determine the severity of the torture that the victims had to endure during their ordeal.[39]

Later during the trial the lawyer of one of the victims, Laetitia Delhez, also expressed disappointment that the videos were not reviewed, because they could have proved that Dutroux wasn't acting alone.[39]

In 1998 Dutroux was allowed to have a look at his case files. He was accompanied by two police officers for that. When one officer went on a break Dutroux overwhelmed the other officer and was able to escape. He was captured a few hours later.[7] The Minister of Justice Stefaan De Clerck, the Minister of the Interior Johan Vande Lanotte, and the police chief resigned as a result. In 2000, Dutroux received a five-year sentence for threatening a police officer during his escape. In 2002, he received another five-year sentence for unrelated crimes.[5][35]

Thousands of hairs were found in the cellar dungeon where Lejeune and Russo were held. However, those were not tested for DNA for a very long time.[7]

An inquiry was initiated into the way the investigation was handled by officer De Baets. As this inquiry into his handling of the case took up a lot of resources and during the inquiry, it wasn't possible for him to pass on information to the Parliamentary inquiry into the handling of the case, crucial time was lost.[40]

There were accusations that language difficulties obscured the investigation. The testimony of Régina Louf was in Dutch; however, it was reviewed several times by the new investigators who were primarily French-speaking and they had difficulties in understanding her. Thus they changed the meaning of her testimony in a way that made her sound less credible.[40]

Several sources said that Michel Nihoul and Marc Dutroux were planning on a prostitution and trafficking operation between Slovakia, the Czech Republic and western Europe. Several pieces of evidence lead to connections to Slovakia and the Czech Republic. This included a video tape of Dutroux raping a child in Slovakia that wasn't reviewed after it was seized. It also included testimonies saying that they were planning on setting up a trafficking operation. Also the car theft and smuggling operation that Dutroux was involved in lead to those two Eastern European countries. During the time of his arrest, Dutroux was in the possession of 2,000 SKK (Slovakian currency) in cash. Six Belgian investigators visited the Czech Republic and Slovakia in August 1996. It wasn't possible to prove that Dutroux had committed any crimes while being there. Thus they returned without any substantial evidence.[41]

Press reports claimed that before his removal judge Jean-Marc Connerotte was on the verge of publicly disclosing the names of high level government officials who had been recognized on video-tapes.[42] Connerotte had said that the businessman Michel Nihoul was the brains behind the child kidnapping operation.[37] Investigators also believed that Dutroux and Nihoul were planning on a long-distance prostitution trafficking network involving cars and the import of girls from Slovakia.[43]

The investigating police said in 1996, that Dutroux was part of a child-prostitution ring, that may also have been responsible for several other disappearances still unsolved. They also said that the gang around Dutroux offered $5000 per girl they received. Their criminal activities also involved car theft.[6] It was said that the criminal network around Dutroux was involved in car theft and smuggling. The car in which Lejeune and Russo were kidnapped, has never been found. The general prosecutor, Anne Thilly, decided to have the car theft and smuggling be investigated by different police authorities in different parts of the country. In this way it was nearly impossible to investigate the connection between the car theft, kidnapping and human trafficking.[43] According to blogger Elizabeth Vos, writing in Consortium News, Dutroux also said that Nihoul had proposed to traffic girls from Eastern countries.[44]

Michel Lelièvre the accomplice of Marc Dutroux said that the two girls, Lejeune and Russo, were kidnapped as an order by a third party. However, while in arrest Lelièvre stopped cooperating with the authorities.[37] He told police that he had been threatened and couldn't risk saying any more.[43]

The father of Mélissa Russo, Gino Russo, said during the White March that the removal of judge Connerotte was like "spitting on the grave of Julie and Mélissa." Russo subsequently said that after Connerotte was removed there was no progress in the investigation.[37]

Dutroux owned ten houses. He was in total worth 6 million Belgian francs (US$130,000).[40] While he had all of this wealth in property he also received public assistance of $1,200 a month. It isn't clear how Dutroux was able to acquire the ten properties. Documents were released by WikiLeaks that show that large sums of money in different currencies arrived in Michelle Martin's bank account timely linked to the disappearances of the abducted girls.[6] According to Elizabeth Vos, the money was also transferred in foreign currencies from Morocco and Saudi Arabia.[44] Both the transfers and the value of the six properties that Dutroux owned suggested to investigators that he was financed by a larger pedophile and prostitution ring.[40] The Flemish newspaper Nieuwsblad reported that he had committed health-insurance fund fraud, theft, insurance fraud and investments on the stock market and that that had contributed to his wealth.[45]

Other outlets suggested that he was able to acquire his wealth through criminal activity such as drug-trafficking and insurance fraud.[5] Additional sources said that he made a lot of money with car theft and pimping.[36]

Paul Marchal, the father of the murdered An Marchal, accused the police and the judicial system of a cover-up in 2001. He was angry that still in 2001 the trial hadn't started even though Dutroux had already been under arrest for several years. Paul Marchal said: "It feels like they don't want to find the truth. It is not a good feeling and not only I think this."[7]

Carine Russo and her husband Gino Russo were not permitted to identify their daughter and look at her body. They were told by authorities that Dutroux had identified her and that that was enough.[37] The autopsy of Mélissa showed that she had been raped repeatedly over a prolonged period of time. No DNA evidence was taken from the body to conclusively make sure that only Dutroux had raped her. Dutroux always denied raping Mélissa and Julie.[37]

Eventually several families of victims boycotted the official trial stating that it was a circus and there had been no progress in the case since the removal of judge Connerotte.[46]

There were countless hairs found in the dungeon where the two girls were held. Judge Langlois refused to have them tested for DNA evidence even though the leading police investigator Michel Bourlet had begged him to have them analyzed in order to know whether more people aside from Dutroux were involved.[37] The general prosecutor of the case, Anne Thily, said that she didn't believe that there was anyone else involved and thus didn't have the samples analyzed.[37] Thily told investigative journalist Olenka Frenkiel, "In any case the hairs have all now been analysed—all 5,000. And the results of this analysis? Nothing. No evidence of any relevance in the Dutroux affair. Which proves, of course, that Langlois was right all along." But according to Frenkiel this wasn't true. Sources central to the investigation confirmed that in 2002 the hairs had still not been analysed. Thus Frenkiel accused the senior prosecutor Thily of lying brazenly.[37] Frenkiel continued to question Thily and asked her how she would want to prove that Dutroux raped the girls, as he was denying it and there was no DNA evidence. Thily then replied that there were DNA tests, but that the results came back inconclusive as the bodies were too decomposed at the time the samples were taken.[37] Dutroux's lawyer, Xavier Magnee, said during the trial proceedings "I speak not only as a lawyer, but also as a citizen and father. He was not the only devil. Out of the 6000 hair samples that were found in the basement cellar where some of the victims were held, 25 "unknown" DNA profiles were discovered. There were people in that cellar that are not now accused." However, it was never attempted by the prosecution to match those DNA profiles to people implicated in the case.[47]

Magnee also said that the prosecutors didn't follow up on evidence leading to a cult called "Abrasax", which allegedly performed human sacrifices.[47] In a wooden house of Bernard Weinstein (accomplice of Dutroux) a letter was found from the occult sect "Abrasax", in which a gift for the high priestress (Dominique Kindermans)[48] was mentioned consisting of 17 girls between the age of 2 and 20 for anal, oral and vaginal sex. It was signed by priest "Anubis". This priest was later identified as Francis Desmedt. Later investigations showed that four police men in Charleroi were also members of the sect, one was even the treasurer.[49] The headquarter of the sect (Institut Abrasax) in Rue Emile Vandervelde 223 Forchies La Marche was raided in 1996 by 150 officers. The television showed police taking away bags of papers, video cassettes and a refrigerator. They also took away black magic ritual implements and human skulls.[48]

Several police officers that had worked on the case were subsequently removed from the case in 1997. They were reportedly removed because they had manipulated evidence surrounding the testimony of Régina Louf. However, the involved officers always denied that accusation. This included officer Rudi Hoskens, who believed that the testimony of witness X1, Régina Louf, was true because her testimony matched an unsolved murder case that she could have had no knowledge of, had she not witnessed it. What she described was the murder of then 15-year-old Christine van Hees. She said that the girl was tortured to death by the group and that Nihoul took part in the torture. She said Dutroux watched. Christine van Hees's body was found in 1984.[37] The officer leading the investigation, De Baets, said that they followed up on all testimonies the X witnesses had given, in order to determine whether what they said was possible or not and that they came to the conclusion that it was possible that the things had occurred as the witnesses described them. As this took up a lot of resources and time of the police force an inquiry was initiated into the handling of the case, which then again took up as many resources as the investigation of De Baets itself. It was said that: "The suspicion grew that De Baets and others formed part of a sect bent on destabilising the kingdom." So De Baets and large parts of his team were removed from the investigation and sent home on indefinite leave.[40] Not only was De Baets dropped from the investigation, but he was also charged in 1997 with concealing the fact that Louf had wrongly identified the photograph of one of the victims. However, on the videotapes of her interrogation, it is visible that it was very hard for her to stand looking at the photographs and that her right answer had been in the files all along. In 1999, De Baets was exonerated from the charges.[40] Additionally, two journalists from Le Soir, who were judged to have defamed him and four colleagues, were ordered to pay the gendarmes 2.2 million Belgian francs ($55,000), plus costs.[40] Even though De Baets had been exonerated, he and his colleagues remained on leave.[40]

An officer searched Dutroux's house while Lejeune and Russo were likely still alive on 13 and 19 December 1995. However, even though the locksmith that he inspected the house with suggested they should search the whole house to find out where children's screams were coming from, Michaux left after not having searched the house thoroughly.[39] Not only did Michaux fail to rescue Lejeune and Russo, he also failed to look at video tapes that were confiscated from Dutroux's house. Those video tapes showed him constructing the dungeon, which would have led them to the place where Lejeune and Russo were kept. Some of the videos also included tapes of Dutroux raping women. Many of the tapes were returned to Dutroux without ever being looked at by law enforcement.[39]

Even though Michaux committed grave failures in his duty as a police officer in what was one of the most important criminal cases in the history of Belgium, he was never removed or put on leave like other officers had been. According to Vos, he was subsequently promoted to the position of police commissioner.[44]

At least seven members of law enforcement were arrested on suspicion of having ties to Marc Dutroux. One of them was Georges Zico, a police detective believed to be an associate of Dutroux.[50] According to prosecutor Michel Bourlet, Zico was charged with truck theft, document forgery and insurance fraud.[50]

The judge presiding of the Dutroux case, Judge Jean-Claude Van Espen, had a close relationship to Michel Nihoul. A journalist revealed that as a lawyer Van Espen had represented the wife of Nihoul. Van Espen's sister was the godmother of Nihoul's child. However, even though his close friend Michel Nihoul was involved in the case, Van Espen never resigned. He was also not removed from the case for a very long time, even though judge Conerotte had been removed simply for attending a fundraising dinner.[37] Van Espen was furthermore the judge presiding over the murder case of Christine van Hees from 1984. He only resigned from this case in 1998 when Nihoul was accused of being involved in the murder and Van Espen's close ties to Nihoul were revealed.[37]

Connerotte testified in the Dutroux case on 4 March 2004. He broke down in the witness box stating that there had been high-level murder plots to stop his investigation into the child-sex mafia. He stated that he had to drive in bullet-proof cars and had armed guards around him at all times because shadowy figures from the crime world were threatening him. The police had informed him that murder contracts had been taken out against the prosecutors in the case. He alleged that organised crime methods were used to discredit his work and make sure that the investigation would end in a judicial failure.[46]

Connerotte criticised authorities for not rescuing Lejeune and Russo, even though Dutroux had been a prime suspect for one year before they were found dead. Connerotte also said that he had received files describing a child-sex network. It described seizure of children and foreign trafficking. The sum of 150,000 francs was mentioned as the price for a girl.[46] Connerotte also said that he was doubtful about the official explanation on how Lejeune and Russo died. It was said that they starved to death in the dungeon. An adult can last about three days without water and maximum 60 days without food. If they received nothing to drink and eat they should have been dead very soon after Dutroux was imprisoned. However, Michelle Martin insisted that they were still alive when he returned.[46] Connerotte had even written to King Albert II of Belgium in 1996 stating that his investigations into crime networks were being blocked because suspects "received serious protection". The judge said that the "dysfunctional judiciary" was breaking down as mafia groups took secret control of the "key institutions of the country".[46]

A letter from Connerotte addressed to King Albert II in 1996 stated: "This institution seems to acquire its authority and supremacy over sectors of the justice system by relying on a complex and secret modus operandi, that of the appropriation of certain key circuits of our institutions created and regulated by the Law. It is a matter essentially of political, financial, police, and media circuits. This mafia-style criminal phenomenon is evidently not peculiar to Belgium, but it involves particular manifestations that are well suited to this small country. We can imagine the obstacles that a judiciary inquiry will meet when investigating such facts: numerous taboos, problems of mentality, and a lack of cultural reference on the issue in order to be able to become aware of or deal with such criminal phenomena, taking advantage in Belgium of official reticence in terms of their acknowledgement, which favours or supports their occultation. The function of a criminal system of this sort is obviously to serve its fundamental purpose, the pursuance of particularly profitable illicit activities, such as money-laundering, and to protect the 'legitimacy' of its activities and the impunity of its agents. This indispensable function corresponds to the motive of criminal protection that assures the permanency of the incriminated system by means of the infiltration of the certain circuits of our institutions, especially the police force, a veritable 'knot' which my whole investigation has come up against."[51]

Marc Verwilghen, the chairman of the parliamentary inquiry into the handling of the Dutroux case, reported attempts in a book he published in 1999 to stifle their investigation into how the case had been handled. Verwilghen eventually published a book that claimed that the commission's findings had been muzzled by political and judicial leaders to prevent the revelation of details that would have implicated the complicity of additional perpetrators. Verwilghen claimed that senior political and legal figures refused to cooperate with the inquiry. He said magistrates and police were officially told to refuse to answer certain questions, in what he described as 'a characteristic smothering operation'. Verwilghen blamed Langlois for refusing to hand over evidence of official protection for Dutroux. He said that if they had received that information, their report would have been without doubt more precise and detailed. Verwilghen added that for him, the Dutroux affair was a question of organised crime.[52]

The Belgian senator Anne-Marie Lizin commented on the case saying: "Stupidity (by the police) can't be the only explanation. It's a question of stupidity, incompetence and corruption. Dutroux must be a friend of somebody important. Or else he was being protected because he was known to be a police informant." Lizin said Dutroux was not a true pedophile, as he has been portrayed. He had a record of dealing in stolen cars, selling arms to hoodlums and trafficking in prostitution. "When he discovered that men paid a lot more for little girls for prostitution, he started kidnapping them," she said. When Dutroux finally was arrested, police found in his house video films of him raping little girls. They said he did this so he could sell the films to pedophiles.[53]

In 2009 WikiLeaks published the Dutroux Dossier. Belgian authorities tried to have the dossier taken down. The prosecutor general of Liege, Cedric Visart de Bocarme, said "There is some true, some false, some very disparate information here, involving some people who have done nothing wrong, who have simply been mentioned in an investigation and are thus exposed to public contempt, whereas all this material should have remained classified."[54]

More than 20 potential witnesses of the case have died in mysterious circumstances.[55]

In a wooden house of Bernard Weinstein (accomplice of Dutroux) a letter was found from the occult sect "Abrasax", in which a gift for the high priestress (Dominique Kindermans)[48] was mentioned consisting of 17 girls between the age of 2 and 20 for anal, oral and vaginal sex. It was signed by priest "Anubis". This priest was later identified as Francis Desmedt. Later investigations showed that four police men in Charleroi were also members of the sect, one was even the treasurer.[49] The headquarter of the sect (Institut Abrasax) in Rue Emile Vandervelde 223 Forchies La Marche was raided in 1996 by 150 officers. The television showed police taking away bags of papers, video cassettes and a refrigerator. They also took away black magic ritual implements and human skulls.[48]

The assassination of André Cools took place in 1991. The revelations in the Cools case coincided with the revelations in the Dutroux case and in total made the Belgian public lose trust in their government. Van der Biest was eventually convicted but had already been investigated five years prior as the one who ordered the contract hit on Cools. Due to failures in the investigation he wasn't charged. It was found that several Belgian politicians had been bribed with large sums of money by an Italian helicopter manufacturer, Agusta, in exchange for military contracts. This included Belgian secretary general of NATO, Willy Claes. There were allegations that both the assassination of Cools and the case surrounding Dutroux showed that organised crime had spread in Belgium and that the institutions weren't efficient in combatting the spread or corruption and organised crime.[6]

Dutroux claimed that he was a low dog in a powerful pedophile network. He further claimed that Michel Nihoul was the organizer of their abductions."[78] He said that he did torture and abuse all of the girls but denied killing any of them until the very end.[79] Dutroux further denied the kidnapping, raping and murdering Julie Lejeune and Mélissa Russo. He, however, admitted to incarcerating them at one of his houses.[37] In the case of Lejeune and Russo, Dutroux also claimed that he had "protected them from a power and sinister child sex ring."[80] His testimony that he never raped Lejeune and Russo, was somewhat supported by examinations of psychiatrists in 1996 stating that Dutroux didn't fit the pedophile profile. He wasn't attracted to children. But might have chosen to abduct younger victims because they were easier to manipulate and control.[5] Dutroux admitted to abduction and rape of the other girls. He also admitted to burying his accomplice, Bernard Weinstein, alive for "letting the girls die."[81] Dutroux further said that two unidentified policemen had taken part with him in the kidnapping of An Marchal and Eefje Lambrecks.[80] He boasted about having build the dungeon in which Marchal and Lambrecks were held for a while. He said: "I wanted to create a hiding place to spare them from being sent to a prostitution ring." Dutroux admitted to raping Lambrecks. He said that Weinstein had raped Marchal. He also admitted to drugging both of them. Dutroux also admitted that he kidnapped Sabine Dardenne and raped her. He also admitted to kidnapping and raping Laetitia Delhez but not handing them over to Nihoul "to spare them the fate of An and Eefje."[80] Dutroux's lawyer, Xavier Magnee, repeatedly said that the prosecution never followed up on evidence of a network surrounding Dutroux.[81]

Martin testified that Dutroux and Weinstein kidnapped Lejeune and Russo.[80] She also said that Dutroux had told her that he had murdered Weinstein.[80] Martin further said that Dutroux and Weinstein had killed Marchal and Lambrecks.[80] She further testified that Lejeune and Russo starved to death in their basement in 1996 while Dutroux was in jail. She claims, that she was too scared to descend to the basement.[80]

Martin said that Dutroux had already decided to abduct girls in 1985. He had said that it was easier to abduct and rape girls than having to start affairs with them. This way he would also have more resources and time to spend on her. So she had to help him with the abductions.[45]

The X files were testimonies of people who claimed to have been victims of Dutroux. They had been created after judge Jean-Marc Connerotte had made a public appeal for victims to come forward. In total at least ten victims subsequently contacted the police. All of the witnesses were given the code name "X number". One of the witnesses' names, namely X1, was revealed to be Régina Louf.[37] X1 said that from the age of 11/12 onwards a family friend named Tony Van den Bogaert took her to sex parties with the approval of her family. Several witnesses and family members of Louf confirmed that she had a sexual relationship with Van den Bogaert starting from at least age 12. However, Van den Bogaert has never been interrogated, charged or convicted for sexual abuse. She claimed that other minors were present at the sex parties and that those were secretly filmed for blackmail purposes. She said: "It was highly organised. Big business. Blackmail. There was a lot of money involved." During her testimony she described some regular clients including judges, a prominent politician and one banker. She gave the police names, addresses and detailed description of two murders that matched unsolved cases of the two murders of teenage girls. Louf said that the parties didn't only include sex but also sadism, torture and murder. She claimed that one of the organisers of the parties was a man she knew as Mich (Jean Michel Nihoul). Louf described him as a cruel man, who sadistically tortured girls.[37]

Louf said that Dutroux was at that time a young man who brought drugs to the parties for the girls to numb themselves and took care of them in other ways. As a reward he was also allowed to use them for his pleasure.[37] The crimes that Louf described took place about ten years prior to the arrest of Dutroux.[37] Louf's full name was leaked to the press. She was subsequently made out to look like a fantasist and liar.[37] The new presiding judges declared that she was not a credible witness and that her testimony and the testimony of the other X witnesses would not be used during the trial.[37]

One of the other X witnesses, who's real name wasn't revealed, but who's now working for the police said that they had witnessed and experienced similar abuse. They also recounted instances where children were chased through the woods with Dobermans.[40]

Witness X3 testified that one of the people present at the gatherings that involved sex orgies with minors, torture and murder was Willy Claes, secretary general of the NATO. Claes resigned after he was found guilty of corruption in a tendering process for a large defence contract connected to Agusta helicopters, a large military-helicopter producer from Italy.[40]

The testimony of X2 implicated that Etienne Davignon, Maurice Lippens, Paul Vanden Boeynants, Benoît de Bonvoisin and Prince Alexandre of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha were named as having been present at orgies involving underaged persons.[51]

A book was published in November 1999 titled: The X-Files: What Belgium Was Not Supposed to Know About the Dutroux Affair. It was written by two journalists from the Flemish Belgian newspaper De Morgen, Annemie Bulte and Douglas De Coninck and another journalist from the French Belgian newspaper Journal du Mardi, Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck. It claimed that the X witnesses were much more believable than stated by the media. But it also stated that there had been substantial efforts by the magistrates and senior police officials to demolish the testimony of the X-witnesses. The father of a police officer that was murdered while investigating a car smuggling ring, Judge Guy Poncelet, said that the book was brilliant and convincing. He said he believed that crucial evidence had been downplayed by the authorities.[40]

The death penalty was abolished in Belgium in 1996. The last execution for common-law crimes was in 1918. However, the majority of Belgians, at the time of the trial, would have had no problem with Dutroux receiving the death penalty.[82] On 22 June 2004, Dutroux received the maximum sentence of life imprisonment, while Martin received 30 years and Lelièvre 25 years. The jury was asked to go back into seclusion to decide whether or not Nihoul was an accomplice.

On 23 June, Dutroux lodged an appeal against his sentence.[83]

Although Nihoul was acquitted of kidnapping and conspiracy charges, he was convicted on drug-related charges and was sentenced to five years' imprisonment. Nihoul was released in spring 2006. He resided in Zeebrugge until his death on 23 October 2019.

On 19 August 2012, about 2,000 people in Brussels demonstrated against Martin's possible early release from prison. She has since been paroled, 16 years into her sentence,[84] and was released into the care of the Poor Clares in Malonne. She was given shelter, although she was not part of the community. The sisters have declared that they were not her guardian and shelter was given under the condition that she would not violate the conditions of her parole.[85] As the convent has since been sold, she has had to find new shelter or go back to prison. A former judge has created an apartment in his converted farmhouse, where she now lives.[86][87]

Lelièvre is currently serving his prison sentence in the prison of Ittre. His application for parole in 2013 was denied. He has since then been granted temporary leave, but has violated the conditions of release. He may be released if he can find an apprenticeship as a cabinet-maker, which has so far been unsuccessful. The Belgian state was forced to pay Lelièvre €6,000. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that a moral compensation was in order because he was held in custody (nearly eight years) without receiving answers to his requests.

On 4 February 2013, Dutroux requested the court in Brussels for an early release from prison.[88] He insisted that he was "no longer dangerous" and wanted to be released into house arrest with an electronic tag (ankle bracelet) placed upon him. On 18 February, the court denied his request.[89] Dutroux is currently being held in solitary confinement in the prison of Nivelles.[90]

In October 2019, Dutroux won the pre-parole right to a psychiatric assessment,[91] which was supposed to take place in May 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[92]

Michel Nihoul was a business man that was known to frequently attend sex parties. He was accused of being the brains behind the child kidnapping and abuse operation around Dutroux.[37] According to Vos, Nihoul was charged in relation to the case with "kidnapping, rape, conspiracy and drug offenses."[44] Nihoul's lawyer in the case, Frederic Clement de Clety, denied all charges made against Nihoul by Dutroux and called him a "liar and manipulator."[80] When the investigative journalist, Olenka Frenkiel, met Nihoul in Brussels he reportedly greeted her with the words "I am the monster of Belgium." He told her that he was certain that he would never be prosecuted. During the encounter he grabbed her, tickled her and pulled her unto him so that she called for her colleagues to help her get away from him. Frenkiel was working on a documentary on the case for the BBC.[37] In 2004 at the end of the Dutroux case trial he was released of all charges in child abduction.[96] In May 2010 the Belgian prosecutor office dropped all charges against Nihoul relating to a participation to a pedophile ring in the absence of any tangible evidences.[97]

• Jean-Marc Connerotte (on his initiative two girls were rescued, was removed from case for attending fundraising dinner for families)
• Jacques Langlois (investigating magistrate). Dutroux case was his first assignment[37]
• Stephane Goux (judge presiding over verdict)[79]
• Jean-Claude Van Espen (was in charge of the murder investigation of Christine van Hees, resigned from the Dutroux case and the murder investigation around van Hees after his close ties to Michel Nihoul were made public in 1998)

• 26 April 1989 – Marc Dutroux is convicted of the rape of five girls in 1985 and 1986.
• 8 April 1992 – Dutroux, thanks to the then minister of justice Melchior Wathelet, is released from prison early where he was serving a 13.5 year sentence.

• 24 June 1995 – The eight-year-old girls Julie Lejeune and Mélissa Russo are abducted in Liège.
• 22 August 1995 – The 17-year-old An Marchal and the 19-year-old Eefje Lambrecks are kidnapped in Ostend.
• 25 November 1995 – The 43-year-old Bernard Weinstein was killed by Dutroux (presumably on this date).[100]
• 13 December 1995 – Following tips from witnesses and Dutroux's mother, Chief Guard René Michaux searches Dutroux 's house in Marcinelle. Children's voices are heard, but Michaux thinks that they come from outside.
• 28 May 1996 – 12-year-old Sabine Dardenne is abducted in Kain, Walloon.
• 9 August 1996 – Laetitia Delhez, 14, is abducted in Bertrix.
• 13 August 1996 – Dutroux, his wife Michelle Martin, and a friend, Michel Lelièvre, are arrested on the basis of witness statements.
• 15 August 1996 – Police discovered Sabine Dardenne and Laetitia Delhez, who were hidden in a cell in the basement of Dutroux's house.
• 16 August 1996 – Police arrest Michel Nihoul on suspicion of conspiracy.
• 17 August 1996 – The bodies of Lejeune and Russo are dug up in the garden of a house that Dutroux owns in Sars-la-Buissière. The girls died of starvation. The corpse of Bernard Weinstein, a French companion of Dutroux, is also discovered in the same garden.
• 18 August 1996 – Dutroux and Lelièvre confess the kidnapping of Marchal and Lambrecks, but deny that the teenagers were murdered.
• 3 September 1996 – The police find the bodies of Marchal and Lambrecks under a shed at Weinstein's house. They are buried alive.

• 21 September 1996 – Jean-Marc Connerotte, investigating judge in the Dutroux case, marries his girlfriend with whom he has been together for 10 years. Together with their son they visit a benefit meeting for the parents of (the) disappeared children. They eat spaghetti during this benefit meeting. Connerotte sat at the table with Michel Bourlet, the attorney at Neufchâteau. He only stayed for an hour and did not speak to Sabine Dardenne. The magistrates received a fountain pen of €27 each, their wives a bouquet of flowers.
• 15 October 1996 – The spaghetti affair : the Court of Cassation removes the investigating judge Jean-Marc Connerotte because attending this benefit meeting where he received two gifts (the plate of spaghetti and a fountain pen).
• 20 October 1996 – The White March. Around 300,000 people demonstrate in Brussels to vent their outrage at the delays and errors in the Dutroux investigation.
• 24 October 1996 – Fearing that the Dutroux investigation will be screwed up, the Belgian parliament will set up an independent investigation committee to investigate the Dutroux case, as well as the possible procedural errors in the Belgian police and judicial authorities. Marc Verwilghen will be the chairman.
• 15 March 1997 – The Dutroux commission makes scathing criticism of the police and the Ministry of Justice, who made a mess of investigations into the missing girls.
• 6 May 1997 – The Dutroux Commission returns to work and investigates whether Dutroux was protected by high figures.
• 15 February 1998 – The committee's second report states that the Dutroux gang did not enjoy protection from above, but benefited from corruption, carelessness, and lack of professionalism.
• 23 April 1998 – Dutroux escapes his guards in the Neufchâteau courthouse, but is picked up again four hours later in Herbeumont Saint-Médard by ranger Stéphane Michaux. Interior Minister Johan Vande Lanotte and Minister of Justice Stefaan De Clerck offer their resignation on the same day and are succeeded by Louis Tobback and Tony Van Parys, respectively. The head of the government service, Willy Deridder, also resigns.
• 14 July 1999- Hubert Massa, Advocate General in charge of the Dutroux case, commits suicide.
• 15 December 1999 – Michel Nihoul is released conditionally due to lack of evidence.
• 15 March 2002 – Investigative Judge Jacques Langlois completes the investigation into Dutroux.
• 17 January 2003 – The Council Chamber in Neufchâteau decides to bring Dutroux, Martin and Lelièvre before the Court of Assisen. Nihoul is excluded from prosecution. Public prosecutor Bourlet and some civil parties file an appeal.
• 30 April 2003 – The Liège Chamber of Indictment (AI) follows Attorney Bourlet and also refers Nihoul to the Court of Assisen.[101][102]
• 8 December 2003 – Attorney Bourlet files the 27-page indictment.[103]

• 1 March 2004 – The Dutroux trial starts in Arlon.
• 14 June 2004 – After 56 litigation days, the twelve members of the jury withdraw to consider the guilt or innocence of the suspects.
• 17 June 2004 – Dutroux is found guilty of various murders.
• 22 June 2004 – Dutroux is sentenced to life imprisonment and 10 years at the government's disposal. Michelle Martin gets 30 years in prison, Michel Lelièvre 25 years and Michel Nihoul 5 years. Dutroux appeals in cassation.
• 16 December 2004 – The Court of Cassation decides that no procedural errors have been made. The penalties continue to apply.
• October 2005 – Lelièvre asks for a first time to be released conditionally. That is refused because he has not yet reimbursed his victims.[104]
• Michel Nihoul was released early in May 2006 under conditions[94]
• 2007 – The Belgian state is ordered by the European Court of Human Rights to pay €6,000 in damages to Lelièvre, because his pre-trial detention had lasted unreasonably long. Like Marc Dutroux and Michelle Martin, Lelièvre had been in jail for almost eight years when he was convicted in 2004. The money goes to his victims.[104]
• April 2007 – Michelle Martin submits a request for conditional release, in application of the Lejeune Act. This is rejected in view of the seriousness of the facts, the lack of probation prospects and the risks associated with the psychological profile of the convicted person.
• October 2008 – Martin submits a second application, which is rejected.
• November 2009 – Martin submits a third application, which is again rejected.
• 8 May 2011 – Martin, after serving half of her sentence, obtains conditional release. The associated conditions were not met in mid-June 2011, and Martin was not released conditionally.
• April 2012 – Dutroux requests penal leave, allowing him to stay outside the prison for a day and a night every month (this can be done at the earliest one year before serving one third of his sentence). The prison management rejects.[105]

• 31 July 2012 – The criminal court decides once again to release Michelle Martin conditionally. The monastery of the Poor Klaren in Malonne is prepared to receive her. However, the Public Prosecution Service appeals in cassation. The conditional release leads to protests.
• 19 August 2012 – The families of Julie Lejeune and An Marchal, together with Laetitia Delhez, are organizing a manifestation against Martin's conditional release. There are 5,000 participants. After the event, they will be received by Minister of Justice Annemie Turtelboom and Minister of Internal Affairs Joëlle Milquet, a week later by Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo.
• 28 August 2012 – The Supreme Court ruled that it had found no procedural errors in the decision of the criminal court. A few hours later Martin leaves the prison on the way to the monastery in Malonne.[106][107]
• 6 September 2012 – Following the protests against the release of Martin, the government summit concretises the coalition agreement that included a sensitive tightening of the conditional release.[108]
• 13 September 2012 – Dutroux applies for release with ankle strap (this can be done six months before the first appearance before the criminal court).[109] According to Ronny Baudewijn, Dutroux's lawyer, he also really hopes to be released. He declares to have spent hours discussing repentance and regret with him, which Dutroux does not have: He finds it regrettable that people have died, but he does not feel guilty. As a psychopath, he cannot empathize with what he does to others, he only sees what he is entitled to.[110]
• April 2013 – Dutroux will have served one third of his sentence and will be summoned for the first time by the enforcement court (even if he does not take the initiative with a request for a conditional release).
• Michael Lelièvre was released under conditions in October 2019[95]
• In October 2019 Dutroux filed to have himself be examined by psychiatrist. In order to be able to be released early under conditions in 2021 three psychiatrists would have to come to the conclusion that the danger of him reoffending is low.[111][112] In May 2020, Dutroux's pre-parole hearing was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.[113]