Beast of Belgium Convicted of Murdering Girls

The most hated man in Belgium, paedophile Marc Dutroux, was today convicted of the murder of girls he kidnapped and tortured.

It was a case that had horrified the country for nearly a decade and led to reforms of the judiciary and police.

In the first of 243 counts, the 12 member jury convicted Dutroux of responsibility for kidnapping and holding hostage six girls, leading to torture and deaths.

He was then convicted of three murders: An Marchal, 17, and Eefje Lambrecks, 19, and an alleged accomplice.

Relatives of the 47-year-old monster’s victims said they were hoping for closure.

“I don’t think this has helped me with the grieving process, but at least I will know that my granddaughter is avenged,” said Jeanine Lejeune, whose eight-year-old granddaughter was one of the first to disappear.

Dutroux, 47, and his three co-defendants were not inside the court in Arlon to hear the verdicts to avoid any potential pressure or influence on the jurors.

Once all 243 verdicts were given by the eight woman, four man, jury they were to be brought in .

Dutroux had admitted to kidnapping and sexually abusing two girls – Sabine Dardenne, then 12, and Laetitia Delhez, then 14 – who were rescued from a basement prison in his house two days before his arrest in August 1996.

But he denied killing An and Eefje as well as an alleged accomplice, Bernard Weinstein.

He also denied involvement in the kidnapping and deaths of two eight-year-olds, Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo, both of whom starved to death in his basement in early 1996 while he was serving a short jail term for car theft.

Also charged were Dutroux’s ex-wife, Michelle Martin, and two other alleged accomplices Michel Lelievre and Michel Nihoul.

Martin apologised to the court for not feeding Julie and Melissa, while Dutroux was in jail for four months for car theft. Lelievre admits kidnapping but not raping or killing Marchal and Lambrecks, while the other co-defendant Michel Nihoul denies involvement in the kidnappings.

Dutroux faces up to life in prison, while Martin and Lelievre face possible maximum 30 year sentences and Nihoul 20 years if found guilty.

In Belgium, no appeal against a jury verdict is possible, except on procedural grounds. In that case, the Cour de Cassation, the supreme court, reviews the verdict.

THey already tried that with this cretin:

MARC DUTROUX: Age 47, Dutroux was a jobless electrician surviving, it is alleged, 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 two girls, Sabine Dardenne, then aged 12, and Laetitia Delhez, 14.

Both girls were discovered alive two days later in the cellar of a property belonging to Dutroux in the southern town of Charleroi.

Investigators then unearthed the bodies of four other girls who had been missing for more than a year, from the gardens of other Dutroux properties: Julie Lejeune, 8, Melissa Russo, 8, An Marchal, 17, and Eefje Lambrecks, 19.

They also dug up the body of Bernard Weinstein, a murdered accomplice who, according to Dutroux, let Julie and Melissa starve to death while Dutroux was imprisoned in February and March 1996 for car theft.

Dutroux is charged with murder, rape, kidnapping (including of three Slovakian girls), violent car theft and drug-dealing. He faces life in prison.

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