Belgium Child Rapist is Jailed for Life

23/06/2004| IslamWeb

Paedophile rapist and murderer Marc Dutroux was sentenced to life behind bars yesterday at the climax to a harrowing trial that delved into one of the darkest chapters in Belgium's history. Dutroux's lawyer, Xavier Magnee, said his client plans to appeal the sentence. After more than an hour of deliberation, the court also sentenced co-defendant Michelle Martin, Dutroux's ex-wife, to 30 years in prison; heroin addict Michel Lelievre to 25 years, and businessman Michel Nihoul to five years. "Marc Dutroux, you have been condemned to the maximum sentence," Judge Stephane Goux told Dutroux after reading out the sentences."I believe that you still come out of it better than most of the victims who are no longer among the living." Sabine Dardenne, one of the two girls who were rescued from a cellar where Dutroux submitted his victims to sexual abuse, was said to be "delighted". "A good piece of justice has finally been done," said her lawyer, Celine Parisse. The court also approved a call by the prosecution that Dutroux be put "at the government's disposal" for 10 years - a measure allowing the authorities to keep him behind bars for another decade, if he were at some stage given parole. The 47-year-old Dutroux had once again protested his innocence in a last session of pleading before the sentences were pronounced, but was slapped down by Goux. For Dutroux, dubbed by the Press "Belgium's most hated man", life will most likely mean life without prospect of parole. But for Michelle Martin, 44, and Michel Lelievre, their respective terms of 30 and 25 years could in theory be cut short with good behaviour. The fourth defendant, Michel Nihoul, 63, was jailed for five years for drug-dealing and fraud. But he was acquitted last week of all charges of complicity in the abductions. For Jean-Denis Lejeune, whose daughter Julie was one of two eight-year-old girls who starved to death while imprisoned by Dutroux, the sentences brought little solace. Noting that Martin and Lelievre could be out earlier on parole, he said: "These people, even so, kidnapped children, tortured them and left them to starve. The acquittal of Nihoul on the charge of complicity in the kidnappings fuelled questions of whether the trial uncovered the full truth behind whether Dutroux was merely the courier for a paedophile gang. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Belgian child rapist and killer Marc Dutroux sits in the dock in a courthouse in the eastern Belgian town of Arlon on June 22, 2004. (Reuters)