TWO Belgian men charged with abducting and imprisoning children have confessed to leaving two eight year old girls to starve to death and to kidnapping two other girls, a public prosecutor said in Neufchateau, Belgium, yesterday.
Mr Marc Dutroux (39) and Mr Michel Lelievre were arrested last Tuesday in connection with the disappearance of two girls who were later found alive, imprisoned in the cellar of a house in Marcinelle, southern Belgium. They had been sexually abused.
Investigators found three bodies on Saturday at another house belonging to Mr Dutroux in nearby Sars La Buissiere. Further excavations were begun yesterday in a house in Mont-sur-Marchienne, on the outskirts of Charleroi, which was occupied for a year by a friend of Mr Dutroux.
Two of the bodies were identified as Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo, both aged eight, who went missing in June last year. A third body was identified as another accomplice of Mr Dutroux, Bernard Weinstein.
Mr Michel Bourlet, who is in charge of the case, told a news conference that Mr Dutroux had accused Mr Lelievre of leaving the girls to die "from lack of care".
The prosecutor said that in spring last year Mr Dutroux had allegedly offered £1,000 to Weinstein and Mr Lelievre to "bring him some girls", and the pair subsequently abducted Julie and Melissa. The girls were allegedly kept for months in a hideout built into Mr Dutroux's house in Marcinelle.
Mr Dutroux was arrested for theft last December and jailed until March. According to the prosecutor, during that time Mr Lelievre and Weinstein took no care of the girls, who died of hunger in the hideout.
When he discovered the girls were dead, it is alleged that Mr Dutroux killed Weinstein possibly by drugging him before burying all three bodies in a three metre deep hole in the garden at the Sars La Buissiere house.
Investigators began searching there on Friday, after two kidnapped girls were found the previous day. After two days of questioning, Mr Dutroux led gendarmes to the house where Sabine Dardenne (12) and Laetitia Delhez (14) were in a cellar room hidden by a bookcase. Sabine was abducted on May 28th in southwest Belgium. Laetitia went missing on August 9th.
Following the deaths of Julie and Melissa, Mr Dutroux did not want any more girls to die, Mr Bourlet said.
The prosecutor said Mr Dutroux and Mr Lelievre had also confessed to kidnapping two other Belgian girls, An Marchal (19) and Eefje Lambrecks (17), who went missing last year near Ostend. He said they may have left Belgium. "I have hopes to find them alive," he said.
Mr Dutroux was charged on Friday with kidnapping and unlawfully imprisoning children, and was remanded in custody.
Five other people have been charged or questioned, including Mr Dutroux's wife, Ms Michelle Martin (36), and Mr Lelievre. A Brussels property agent, Mr Jean Michel Nihoul (54), has been charged with criminal association. A former Brussels lawyer has also been arrested, but no further details were given. Another Belgian was questioned but later released without charge.
Belgian press reports claimed that pornography was seized at two houses. But Mr Bourlet said he had no proof that Mr Dutroux and Mr Lelievre were part of a paedophile or child prostitution network.