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Dutroux in new court outburst
10/06/2004 20:31 - (SA)
Arlon - Marc Dutroux launched a final tirade on Thursday as his trial in Belgium for the gruesome rape and murder of several girls in the mid-1990s neared its end after 15 weeks of harrowing hearings.
The jury in Belgium's "trial of the century" will retire to consider its verdict on Monday, facing the unenviable task of casting judgement on a series of crimes that convulsed the country and shocked the world.
Giving his closing address before the jury decides whether he should spend the rest of his life behind bars, the 47-year-old Dutroux repeated claims that he was the hapless fall-guy for a shadowy gang of paedophiles.
"I don't contest any of my real faults. I am here to be condemned," he said from behind a bullet-proof glass chamber that has accommodated the former electrician and his three co-accused since March 1.
"But those who claim that everything was presented (in the trial) are liars and manipulators," said Dutroux, a convicted child rapist.
Two starved to death
What the press calls "Belgium's most-hated man" is on trial along with his ex-wife Michelle Martin, 44, and two men - Michel Lelievre, 33, and Michel Nihoul, 63 - for the abduction and rape of six girls.
Two of the girls were murdered and two others, aged eight, starved to death. All the bodies were found buried in the gardens of Dutroux properties in the summer of 1996.
Dutroux faces life in jail if convicted. While he has confessed to kidnapping and rape, he denies murder.
Dutroux's ex-wife repeated her "deepest regrets" to the victims and their families.
"The most decent attitude in the face of their pain is silence," Martin told the court.
Her ex-husband, however, was not to be silenced.
Addressing the court for nearly three hours in a dispassionate monotone, Dutroux read from lengthy notes to point the finger at his co-accused, especially Nihoul, and unidentified other people.
"There were unknown people behind Nihoul," Dutroux said.
Dutroux admitted he was "responsible" for the deaths of two teenagers, An Marchal, 17, and Eefje Lambrecks, 19, who disappeared while on holiday on the Belgian coast in August 1995.
"But, I'm not their rapist nor their killer," he said.
Led police to a dungeon
Dutroux said he had left the girls with Lelievre and a French accomplice, Bernard Weinstein, whom Dutroux has admitted killing in an argument about money.
The bodies of Weinstein and the two eight-year-old girls, Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo, who had been missing for more than year, were discovered in August 1996.
The discovery came after Dutroux led police to a dungeon where he had confined his victims, enabling the rescue of two other girls from a terrifying ordeal of sexual abuse.
Dutroux denied abducting the eight-year-olds, who had starved to death after being repeatedly raped.
But he repeated his claim that Martin failed to feed them while he was serving a stint in jail for car theft.
- AFP
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