BELGIUM: Standing throughout, and speaking with fluent and chilling self-assurance, the convicted child rapist Marc Dutroux yesterday described to a court how he kidnapped and abused girls and held them in a dungeon.
However, in his first testimony at his trial for crimes that shocked the world, Belgium's most hated man denied abducting and killing two other children whose emaciated bodies were found buried in his garden.
Dutroux (47), insisted he had "found" eight-year-old Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo at his house near Charleroi in June 1995 and had "protected" them from a sinister and powerful child sex ring.
He named Brussels businessman Michel Nihoul as the organiser of their and other abductions. Nihoul, Dutroux's then wife, Michelle Martin, and a heroin addict called Michel Lelievre - all co-defendants - were present when he arrived home.
"My wife told me we were going to keep them in the house for a few days," he told Arlon district court. "I didn't know they had been kidnapped." But Martin, seated next to her ex-husband in the bullet-proof glass dock, testified later that it was Dutroux and his French accomplice Bernard Weinstein who kidnapped the girls.
Martin, Lelievre and Nihoul are charged with kidnapping, rape, conspiracy and drugs offences. Dutroux, facing life behind bars, is charged with three counts of murder. Questioned by Judge Stephane Roux, Dutroux said he had found Julie and Melissa dead of starvation in the dungeon after completing a four-month prison sentence for a vehicle theft. He said: "I put them both in the freezer for more than a week. I had other things to do."
Judge Roux said that in an earlier declaration Dutroux had said the girls were still alive and he had tried to revive them, but the defendant said he had been lying.
In a new revelation, Dutroux claimed two unnamed policemen had taken part with him and Lelievre in the kidnapping of An Marchal (17), and Eefje Lambrecks (19), in Flanders in August 1996.
Post-mortem evidence suggested they had been buried alive. He also referred to unidentified criminals who enjoyed "police and political protection". Dutroux boasted of building an "undetectable" dungeon in an old water cistern. "I did all the electrical work myself and put in three different lights to light up the place really well."
He built a miniature table and installed a colour TV for the two Liege girls who he said "agreed to stay in my house because worse things would happen to them elsewhere".
Asked by the judge why he had built a trap-door to conceal the dungeon, he said: "I wanted to create a hiding place to spare them from being sent to a prostitution ring." Dutroux claimed Weinstein had "played" with Melissa and sexually abused her. Weinstein's body was found buried with the two teenagers. Martin said Dutroux told her he had killed the Frenchman.
Dutroux admitted having raped Eefje, who had tried to escape. Weinstein had sex with An. Martin said Dutroux and Weinstein had killed them. The trial continues.