Thu, Jun 24, 2004 page6

• Life for killer pedophile Dutroux

  A BETTER FATE Pleading innocent to the end, Marc Dutroux was jailed together with his ex-wife and two others for the deaths of four girls and raping two more

  • AFP
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  Pedophile rapist and murderer Marc Dutroux was sentenced to life behind bars on Tuesday at the end of a harrowing trial that delved into one of the darkest chapters in Belgium's history.

  Dutroux's ex-wife was given 30 years for her role in the shocking abduction and rape of six girls in the mid-1990s, four of whom died. An accomplice was jailed for 25 years and a fourth defendant for five.

  

  Laetitia Delhez walks out of the Palace of Justice in Arlon, Belgium, after Belgium's ``trial of the century'' ended on Tuesday with four defendants accused of sex abuse and murder receiving prison terms. Delhez was one of the victims of the group.

  PHOTO: AP

  "Marc Dutroux, you have been condemned to the maximum sentence," presiding judge Stephane Goux said at the close of nearly four months of hearings, dubbed Belgium's "trial of the century."

  "I think that you are still facing a better fate than most of your victims, who are no longer in the world of the living," Goux said.

  Sabine Dardenne, one of 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.

  Dutroux's lawyer, Xavier Magnee, said his client plans to appeal the sentence.

  "Marc Dutroux will exercise his right to an appeal," said Magnee, who described the verdict as "inevitable."

  Dutroux, 47, had once again protested his innocence in a last session of pleading before the sentences were pronounced, but was slapped down by Goux.

  "Marc Dutroux, the verdict is clear," the judge, visibly agitated, said after a 10-minute intervention by Dutroux, who nevertheless vowed to battle to the "end of his days" to prove his innocence.

  Goux handed down the sentences in an emotionless voice to a hushed courtroom at the end of a lengthy summation of a series of crimes that traumatized Belgium and shocked the world.

  For Dutroux, dubbed by the press "Belgium's most hated man," life will most likely mean life without prospect of parole.

  But for his ex-wife, Michelle Martin, 44, and his 33-year-old "faithful companion" Michel Lelievre, their respective terms of 30 and 25 years could in theory be cut short with good behavior.

  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.

  Dutroux argued all along that he was the fall guy for a pedophile gang led by Nihoul -- a view shared by most Belgians, surveys suggest.

  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 he could meet Martin and Lelievre in the streets if they are released early, he said: "These people, even so, kidnapped children, tortured them and left them to starve.

  "It leaves me with a bad taste in the mouth," Lejeune said.

  The acquittal of Nihoul on the charge of complicity in the kidnappings fueled questions of whether the trial uncovered the full truth behind whether Dutroux -- as he claimed -- was merely the courier for a pedophile gang.

  It did, however, revive memories of police and judicial bungling that in late 1996 saw more than 300,000 people take to the streets of Brussels in silent protest.

  During the pre-sentencing hearing, Martin reiterated her "profound regrets and profound remorse."

  Lelievre had said: "Whatever the sentence, I will accept it."

  Nihoul had appealed for the "greatest clemency" from the court.

  Dutroux was found guilty last Thursday of murdering two teenaged girls and an accomplice, as well as of abducting and raping the six girls.

  But in one of the most harrowing aspects of the case, the prosecution said it had been unable to determine precisely when Julie Lejeune and her friend Melissa Russo died their agonizing deaths in the darkness of Dutroux's dungeon.

  Dutroux claimed that his ex-wife failed to feed them but no one was ever charged with the murder of the children.

  "We are at the end of one stage. Unfortunately, nothing has been resolved," Jean-Denis Lejeune said.

  "Having to live with all these uncertainties and these grey areas means that life will remain disturbed as long as we don't know what really happened," he said.
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