Belgian child rapist Marc Dutroux on Thursday dashed hopes that he would reveal new details about the kidnap, rape and murder of girls at his trial but insisted he was a reluctant accomplice to a pedophile ring.
In a final plea before the jury deliberates next week on its verdict, the country's most hated criminal rejected prosecution charges that he was the leader of a small band of kidnappers.
Reading from a prepared text behind the dock's bulletproof glass, Dutroux reiterated a claim maintained since the trial began on March 1 that he worked for a ring whose members included police and unnamed politicians.
He said he reluctantly supplied the ring with girls out of fear for his life and that of his family.
"I believed the threats ... against my family," he told the court in this eastern Belgian town near the Luxembourg border.
He admitted abducting and raping the girls but denied murdering any of them.
"To condemn me for crimes that have nothing to do with me would be to close the door on the truth," he said.
Belgium's trial of the century has gripped people for more than three months amid expectations that Dutroux would provide new details about a series of crimes that first shocked the country in the mid-1990s.
Given police bungling of the investigation into circumstances surrounding no fewer than six missing girls, many people embraced a conspiracy theory according to which Dutroux is supposed to have worked under the protection of a mysterious ring whose members belonged to the upper echelons of society.
Despite a vague reference to police officers helping kidnap two of his victims, Dutroux failed to provide evidence to support his claim.
One of his lawyers spoke of a ring with ties to a Satanic cult, but he could do no more than to ask the jury to give investigators more time to pursue the lead.
Dutroux faces life in prison on charges of kidnapping and raping six girls and killing four of them. The two youngest victims, both 8, starved to death in a dungeon that he built in his basement.
His three co-defendants, including his ex-wife Michelle Martin, each face more than 20 years in prison.
"My errant ways must be condemned," he said.
Reading those lines in a steady voice, Dutroux sought eye contact with the two surviving victims. One of them, Sabinne Dardenne, had left the courtroom, refusing to hear him speak.
Dutroux accused his co-defendants of the murders, singling out Michel Nihoul as the link to the purported ring.
He urged them to tell the truth about the death of the girls, whose bodies were dug up behind houses near Charleroi following the arrest of the suspects in 1996.
Dutroux expressed regret for the crimes committed and said he could understand how the victims' families felt.
"If it were me, I would not want to forgive," he told them. "You are the parents that I would have loved to have had," he said.
But his words rang hollow for Raymond Lejeune, whose granddaughter Julie starved to death in the dungeon.
"Marc Dutroux has always lied and he continues to lie," he said, barely containing his rage.
"What we have been waiting to know is who kidnapped our little girl," he said.
"But we will never know. That is what chokes us up," he said.
In brief remarks to the court, Martin also expressed remorse while Nihoul denied having anything to do with Dutroux.
"I have never in my life ... approached a child with malicious intent," he said.
Both Martin and the third co-defendant, Michel Lelievre, have confessed to helping Dutroux kidnap the girls.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
RSS