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For 80 days, 12-year-old Sabine Dardenne was kept captive in the cellar of Marc Dutroux, the psychopathic paedophile known as the 'Monster of Belgium'. Nine years on, she talks to Susannah Herbert about her ordeal It's the word 'victim'," says Sabine Dardenne, drawing an ashtray towards her before lighting the first of many Marlboros. "I hate it. People tend to say of me, 'Ah yes, the victim of…' And I want to reply: 'No I'm not just the victim of…' I have a name. I am Sabine Dardenne and, OK, I'm not like everyone else, because we each have...

A Belgian jury has found Marc Dutroux, the country's most hated man, guilty of leading a band of criminals to kidnap and rape six girls and kill four of them. After three days of deliberations, the chief juror gave the courtroom the jury's first answers to 243 questions on the role of Dutroux and three co-defendants in a series of crimes that shocked Belgium nearly eight years ago. Reading out the answers, the chief juror said Dutroux was also found guilty of murdering one of the girls. The verdict is the climax to a trial that gripped Belgians for more...

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. It found he was the leader of a band responsible for the crimes. He was then convicted of three murders: An Marchal, 17, and Eefje Lambrecks, 19, and an alleged accomplice....

MARC Dutroux, on trial in a horrific child rape and murder case that has haunted Belgium for almost a decade, has denied the most serious charges against him in a final, personal plea to the jury. "I am not a murderer," Dutroux told the packed courthouse. "I am not asking for forgiveness. I can't do much to change the irreversible." While offering his "most sincere regrets" to the parents of the victims, he shocked the court when he added: "You are the parents I would have liked to have had." As the high-profile trial into the kidnap, rape and murder...

Convicted child rapist Marc Dutroux has denied kidnapping and killing two young girls found buried in his garden in Belgium, saying he kept them in a dungeon to protect them from a child-sex ring. Dutroux is accused of a string of horrific crimes including the rape, abuse and murder of schoolgirls in the early 1990s. Taking the stand for the first time, he blamed his wife and three accomplices for the abduction of two eight-year old girls whose bodies were found buried in his garden. He also said police officers helped kidnap two of the victims who he thought would...

Belgian prosecutors accused Marc Dutroux yesterday of burying two young girls alive in a series of abductions and child murders eight years ago. The bodies of An Marchal, 17, and Eefje Lambrechts, 19, were found drugged and wrapped in plastic sheets on Dutroux's land in August 1996, a year after they were seized on their way back from a party. "The victims were not dead when they were buried according to their autopsies," said the chief prosecutor, Michel Bourlet, reading from a 74-page list of charges. Mr Bourlet accused Dutroux, 47, of torturing and raping six girls in a filthy...

By Emma Jane Kirby BBC correspondent in Arlon, Belgium Police and media surround the suspect when he appears Marc Dutroux is Belgium's public enemy number one. The newspapers describe him as Belgium's most hated man. His face is etched onto the Belgian psyche and although everybody here would rather forget about him, that is absolutely impossible at the moment. The little town of Arlon is flooded with journalists - at least 200 different television companies are here beaming Belgium's shame across the world. Turned away Many hotels here have refused to take anybody associated with Marc Dutroux. People will...

BELGIUM was warned yesterday that it risked a "second revolution" if it did not bring Marc Dutroux to justice swiftly on charges of child murder.The warning followed an extraordinary interview given by Dutroux, a serial rapist accused of kidnapping and murdering four young girls. He accused prosecutors of covering up the full extent of the paedophile scandal that rocked Belgium six years ago.In prison awaiting trial, Dutroux told an undercover television reporter that he was not acting alone but was procuring children for a criminal network.He said: "I had regular contacts with the people who formed this ring. But the ...

Shielded behind bullet-proof glass, Marc Dutroux finally goes on trial today for a string of paedophile kidnappings and murders that horrified Europe.The case shook Belgium to its foundations almost eight years ago. As the world media converges on the sleepy Ardennes town of Arlon over the next three months, the Belgian justice system will be just as much in the dock as Dutroux and his three alleged associates.The state is accused of botching the investigation at every stage and ignoring copious evidence that Dutroux was working as a procurer for a child prostitution network.Even the most basic facts surrounding the...

It has taken eight years for Belgium's most hated man to come to trial. But Marc Dutroux is finally due in court on Monday charged with the abduction, rape and murder of young girls in a case whose gruesome detail shocked the country and the world. Long-standing allegations of a cover-up and charges of police incompetence led to mass protests against Belgium's archaic judicial system. But many fear the trial will still leave many questions unanswered. Back in 1996, Marc Dutroux led police to the bodies of four young girls buried underground. Two eight-year-olds had starved to death in captivity....

Dutroux's photo is in the front page of BBC. From http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3520819.stm "The trial has been delayed for eight years as police investigated claims of a wider paedophile ring." Just revealed by ZDF, which also showed the first exclusive interview with Nioul : at least 27 witness were murdered or commited "suicide" in the last 6 years. Revealed March 1, 00:05 AM, in the second channel of German State Television ZDF.

Belgium is anticipating Monday's opening of the long-awaited trial of Marc Dutroux and three others charged in connection with a series of horrifying child kidnaps and murders in the 1990s. Almost eight years on from the original arrest of the four accused, the Belgian judiciary can now begin on the conclusion of the paedophile sex abuse scandal which has gripped the country for so long. Marc Dutroux stands accused of abducting, imprisoning and raping six young girls. Four of the victims – An, Eefje, Julie and Mélissa - were killed. His then wife, Michelle Martin, is accused of aiding and...

Belgium's most hated man, convicted paedophile Marc Dutroux, has been locked up for the last six years without trial. Andrew Osborn wonders why it is taking so long for justice to be done Friday January 25, 2002 He stands accused of committing the vilest of crimes - of raping, torturing and murdering young girls as young as eight for his own sexual gratification. And yet Marc Dutroux, already a convicted paedophile, has still not been brought to justice. Dutroux, Belgium's public enemy number one without equal, has been incarcerated since 1996 and yet still there is no trial date. It...