The rape had left her hemorrhaging badly and in terrible pain. She was afraid that she was going to die from loss of blood, alone in her underground prison, and began to wish that he would finish her off with a bullet in the head. She put all her hope in her letters, while knowing in her heart of hearts that they were not being delivered.
She produced one letter in the form of a questionnaire with the answers “yes” or “no” to be circled. It was returned duly filled in. Dutroux made some attempt to reply, though the handwriting was clearly his, not her mother’s. In the answers to more general questions, he even made simple grammatical errors that her mother would never have made.
As her captivity dragged on, Sabine became consumed with despair. She had finished reading all her books and was fed up with the Sega. There was no one to talk to. She could hardly have a conversation with Dutroux, whose stock replies were “shut up” and “stop sniveling.” It was summertime and she wanted to go out in the sunshine. He shoved two chairs together and told her she should sunbathe—naked, of course—right there in the front room.
She kept bugging him to let her see her friends. This had unintended and tragic consequences. One day, as he was leaving, he said he was going to bring her a friend. Two days later, he announced that her friend was there. She would see her later. Sabine could hardly believe her ears.
First, she had to endure another “sunbathing” session. Then she was taken upstairs where she found another girl naked and chained to the bunk as she had been when she first arrived. The new girl asked Sabine how long she had been there. Sabine replied seventy-seven days.
Sabine was now in mental turmoil. She had asked Dutroux for a friend, and he had brought her one. He was now going to put this girl through what she had been through and she felt that, partly, it was her fault. On the other hand, there would be someone to talk to. Dutroux even promised to clear out the cellar so there would be more room and said he would get plumbing for a bathtub.
The new girl was fourteen-year-old Laetitia Delhez. Dutroux tried to get her to walk around naked, but she kept putting her clothes back on and he gave up. Soon she joined Sabine down in the cellar. She brought important news. She had seen Sabine’s picture on posters that had been pasted up all over the country. Her parents were going crazy trying to find her. Sabine could hardly believe this. Why hadn’t they paid the ransom? It suddenly became clear to Sabine that everything Dutroux had told her was a lie.
Laetitia had been snatched in Bertrix on the French border. She had been walking home from the swimming pool when an old van pulled up alongside her. Dutroux had grabbed her and bundled her though the side door in the same way Sabine had been taken. From Laetitia’s description, it seemed that the driver was the same man Sabine had seen.
She had also been force-fed pills. As Sabine explained what life was like in the cellar, Laetitia kept dozing off due to the effects of the drugs. With the two of them in the cellar, the air became more fetid than ever. It even came as a relief when Dutroux came to take Laetitia upstairs, though Sabine knew what he was going to do with her.
Laetitia was two years older than Sabine. She had already had her first period, so Dutroux forced her to take contraceptive pills—though they were past their expiration date. After the first time Laetitia was raped and abused, Dutroux suddenly stopped coming to get her. A couple of days passed and they figured that he must be on a “mission,” though he had not provided them with extra provisions first.
In fact, on August 13, 1996, Dutroux, his wife, and the driver Michel Lelièvre had been arrested. There had been a witness to the abduction of Laetitia Delhez who noted down part of the license plate number, which matched the one on a van registered to Dutroux. The house was searched by an officer of the child protection squad, but he found nothing. He later was later criticized for this, but Sabine said that he could hardly be blamed as the secret dungeon in the cellar was masterfully concealed.
Two days later, Laetitia and Sabine heard a noise upstairs. They feared that the boss and his gang had come to kill them. They hid themselves under the blanket. Then they heard footsteps and men’s voices. Things were being removed from the shelves upstairs, and they could hear bricks being chipped from the walls. The two girls were terrified.
Then they heard Dutroux’s voice saying, “It’s me,” as usual. But there were other men with him. Fearing the worst, Sabine said that she was not coming out. Laetitia then recognized one of the men who had come into the cellar. He was a policeman from Bertrix. Sabine was still hesitant. She turned to Dutroux and asked if she could leave. She even asked whether she could take the colored pencils he had bought for her with her. He said she could. As they left, both Sabine and Laetitia gave Dutroux a kiss on the cheek.
Sabine then flung herself onto the nearest policemen and did not want to let him go. Laetitia did the same with the policeman from Bertrix. Then after eighty days in the cellar, Sabine was taken out into the sunshine and fresh air. It was only at the police station that Sabine discovered they had given up any hope of finding her alive. It was Laetitia the police were looking for when they visited Dutroux’s house.
The two girls’ parents arrived to take them home. When Sabine arrived back in Tournai, she saw a huge banner saying, “WELCOME.” The streets were full of neighbors, all there to welcome her home, along with a throng of journalists covering the story.
Sabine then learned that thousands of people had been out looking for her. They had dredged the river and scoured the countryside. The ongoing search had been coordinated by the center that had originally been set up to look for eight-year-old Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo, then An Marchal and Eefje Lambrecks.
Delighted to be back in her own home, Sabine had conflicting feelings. Her parents had not packed her things away the way Dutroux had told her. On the other hand, there were new things around the house that they had bought while she was in her dungeon. Life had gone on without her. She was still sad because of the terrible things that had happened to her, but everyone in the streets was celebrating. The newspapers the next day were full of Sabine and Laetitia’s release. It was only when she read them that Sabine realized the extent of the efforts that had been made to find her. She felt ashamed that she had doubted her parents.
Two days later, the bodies of Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo were found buried in the garden of a house Dutroux owned in Sars-La-Buissiere. After being raped repeatedly, the two girls had starved to death when Dutroux was sent to prison for car theft from December 6, 1995, till March 20, 1996. Sabine realized how close both she and Laetitia had come to the same fate. Dutroux refused to admit responsibility for the deaths of Julie and Melissa, saying that he had left his accomplice Bern Weinstein instructions to feed them. He also said that Weinstein had also kidnapped the two girls, admittedly on a commission from Dutroux. However, Dutroux did admit that, annoyed at Weinstein’s failure to feed the two girls, he had given him barbiturates and buried him alive alongside Julie and Melissa in Sars-La-Buissiere. In due course, his body was found.
Sabine was interviewed again by the police. She was determined to tell every tiny detail of what had happened to her so that Dutroux would be held to account. During her interviews, she discovered that, after Dutroux and his accomplices were arrested, the driver Michel Lelièvre had admitted being a party to the kidnapping of Laetitia Delhez. The police told Dutroux about Lelièvre’s confession and made it clear that they were going to lock him up and throw away the key unless he began to cooperate. That was when Dutroux admitted he was holding two girls. The police were surprised. At the time, they were only looking for Laetitia. However, Dutroux said that he had Sabine as well and took the police to them.
It was difficult for Sabine to readjust to everyday life. She wanted everything to go back to how it had been before. That was impossible. Her parents were, understandably, overprotective. The neighbors got together and bought her a new bike, but her parents would not let her ride it to school.
Being back i
n school was good, though. Kids her own age seemed to understand better what she was going through. Her classmates did not ask a single question. They wanted to give Sabine a party, but when she said she saw no cause for celebration, they instead gave her a “missing” poster, signed by the entire class.
When Dutroux’s house was searched, the police found over three hundred pornographic videos featuring children. Six thousand hair samples taken from the dungeon were analyzed to determine whether or not Dutroux had kept other victims there. Meanwhile, Lelièvre admitted kidnapping An Marchal and Eefje Lambrecks, who had been on a camping trip to the Belgian port of Ostend. Their bodies were found under a shed next to another of Dutroux’s houses, which had been occupied by Bernard Weinstein. At one time there had been four girls at that house in Marcinelle—Julie and Melissa in the dungeon and An and Eefje chained up upstairs. Eefje had made several escape attempts. Once, she managed to get out onto the roof, but Dutroux had caught her. Eventually, he found them so troublesome, he drugged them and buried them alive.
During the investigation, businessman Jean-Michel Nihoul was also arrested. He had organized an orgy at a Belgian chateau that was attended by police officers, several government officials, and a former European commissioner. His mistress Marleen De Cockere was charged with criminal conspiracy concerning Dutroux’s activities. Seven other people were arrested in connection with the pedophile ring, and nine police officers in Charleroi were detained for questioning over possible negligence in the investigation.
There was a massive outcry about the whole affair in Belgium. The public demanded that parole conditions for convicted pedophiles be tightened. There was also a call for the reinstatement of the death penalty, which had been outlawed in Belgium just months before Sabine and Laetitia were found.
Community outrage boiled over when Jean-Marc Connerotte, the investigating judge in the case, was dismissed for having attended a fund-raising dinner to help the search for missing children. The Belgian Supreme Court decided that this might taint his objectivity in the Dutroux case. As a result, 300,000 people took to the streets of Brussels, dressed in white as a symbol of innocence. This was the largest demonstration in Belgium since World War II. Some believed that the government was involved in a cover-up, and strikes broke out across the country in protest. The prime minister promised to speed up reforms to the judicial system, and even the king of Belgium had to speak out on the Dutroux case.
A parliamentary committee investigating the matter published a report saying that were it not for failures in the investigation of the pedophile ring, the four murdered girls could have been saved. The committee called for a complete reorganization of the Belgian police force.
Meanwhile the police had made another mistake. Dutroux was allowed to travel to Neufchateau to consult files he would use in his forthcoming trial. While there, he knocked out one of his police guards, and then knocked another to the ground and took his gun. Then he stole a car and made a break for it with half of local law enforcement on his tail. Sabine heard helicopters circling above her school. Another pupil asked her if she was frightened when they heard that Dutroux had escaped. But Sabine was sanguine. She figured that Dutroux would have to be an idiot to come within a million miles of her. As a precaution, police officers were sent to patrol the school corridors, and bodyguards were sent to her home, but by the time she got home after school Dutroux had already been captured. Taking refuge in the woods, he had given himself up to a forest warden. However, his escape forced the resignation of the state police chief, the minister of justice, and the minister of the interior.
After his escape attempt, Dutroux went on trial for assault and theft, and was sentenced to five years. But his trial in connection with Sabine and the other girls was delayed when a magazine in Luxembourg printed the names of fifty alleged pedophiles said to have come from the files of the Dutroux investigation.
Dutroux managed to stall things further by claiming that the Belgian state was violating his human rights. He went to court to demand that he be released from solitary confinement, undergo fewer body searches, and be allowed to sleep uninterrupted. This outraged the Belgian people again, considering what he had put his victims through. The state argued that Dutroux was given special treatment for his own protection.
Then an unauthorized interview was released by a Belgian TV channel. In it, Dutroux was heard admitting that he kept Julie, Melissa, An, and Eefje—in effect admitting his guilt. The authenticity and admissibility of this evidence then had to be examined. These issues meant that his trial for the substantive charges of murder and kidnapping was postponed repeatedly. It was more than seven years before the case came to court.
The trial eventually began on March 1, 2004. There were four defendants: Dutroux, his now ex-wife Michelle Martin, Lelièvre, and Nihoul. By this time Dutroux was maintaining that he was merely a pawn in a pedophile ring masterminded by Nihoul. Dutroux claimed the girls he kidnapped were to be sold by Nihoul, who provided them to pedophiles. To muddy the waters further, Dutroux claimed that two police officers helped in the kidnapping of An Marchal and Eefje Lambrecks.
The investigating judge, Jacques Langlois, then alleged that it was Martin who had left Julie and Melissa to starve, not Weinstein. She had been afraid they would attack her if she went down into the cellar to feed them, although she claimed she had no idea how or why they had died.
Jean-Marc Connerotte then testified that Dutroux had constructed the dungeon and its ventilation system so well that it would have been difficult to detect the girls’ presence even with sniffing dogs. He also testified that his investigation had been hampered by people in government. Contracts had been taken out against investigating magistrates. He needed armed guards and bulletproof vehicles to protect him from powerful individuals who did not want the truth to come out. And he blamed incompetence of the police in Charleroi for the deaths of Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo.
The failure of the Belgian authorities was demonstrated again when a key to Dutroux’s handcuffs was found in his cell, apparently having been smuggled in inside a bag of salt. Those running the prison were then accused of trying to organize his escape.
The final showdown came on April 19, 2004, when Sabine Dardenne, now aged twenty, took the stand. She told of the ordeal he had subjected her to, both physically and mentally, for eighty days. She rejected out of hand the apology he had given in court. When she met his stare, he was forced to lower his eyes.
On the second day of her testimony, Dutroux accused her of asking him to kidnap another victim so that she could have a friend. He also claimed that he had protected her from the pedophile ring.
“So, if I understand you, I should be thankful?” she countered.
Sabine’s letters home were also submitted into evidence. One had been found under Dutroux’s mattress. Although it had been addressed to Sabine’s mother, Sabine had never let her read it, figuring that it would only increase her mother’s suffering to know what her daughter had been through. Sabine had been grateful that the letter had been left there unopened, so Dutroux had not enjoyed any perverse pleasure from reading it.
The person who opened it was the investigating judge, and it provided important evidence in the prosecution of Dutroux and his accomplices. Sabine was glad that the letter was seen by the jury, even though parts of it were read aloud in court. It was important for people to know the depths of evil Dutroux was capable of.
Laetitia Delhez also testified. Then the two of them accompanied the court on a visit to the house and the dungeon where they had been held.
Back in the courtroom, Dutroux admitted to the kidnapping and rape charges, expressing his “sincere regret.” But he denied committing murder, blaming Martin, Lelièvre, and Nihoul.
At the end of the three-month trial, the task for the jury was not an easy one. The eight women and four men were sent to a fortified army barracks in Arlon, where the judge asked them to evaluate 243 questions. They had to review around 400,000
pages of evidence, including the testimony of more than five hundred witnesses. It took three days for them to return with a verdict.
Dutroux was found guilty of kidnapping and raping all six girls, and murdering An Marchel, Eefje Lambrecks, and Bernard Weinstein. Lelièvre was found guilty of kidnapping, but acquitted of murder. Martin was convicted of kidnapping and rape. The jury could not agree on a verdict in Nihoul’s case and were sent back to reevaluate the 243 questions. The evidence showed that he was involved in supplying prostitutes, but the court accepted that he had nothing to do with pedophilia. He was eventually acquitted of involvement in the abductions of the girls, but was convicted of human trafficking and drugs charges.
On June 22, 2004, Dutroux was sentenced to life and put at “the government’s disposition.” That means, if he was, by some oversight, paroled again in the future, the government could return him to prison. Leliève got twenty-five years; Martin got thirty; and Nihoul, five. But the question left unanswered was: Was there really a vast network of pedophiles at work in Belgium as Dutroux claimed?
Sabine Dardenne has said that she has never completely overcome the guilt she felt over Laetitia, who she believes was abducted because she asked for a friend. But her request was the innocent plea of a twelve-year-old; Laetitia does not blame her. Indeed, if Laetitia had not been kidnapped, Sabine would probably not have survived and Dutroux would have been free to abduct and abuse other girls.
Chapter 7
Natascha Kampusch—The Girl in the Cellar
BORN IN VIENNA ON FEBRUARY 17, 1988, Natascha Kampusch was raised by her mother, whose second marriage broke up soon after Natascha was born. The girl did not lose touch with her father and she had a relatively stable childhood, though she was a persistent bed wetter. Looking back, she recalled a general atmosphere of disquiet. She heard stories of child pornography rings and serial killers at large in Austria and neighboring Germany.
Against Their Will Page 14