BRUSSELS - The discovery of the body of a young girl in Brussels last night reopened tragically Belgium's saga of paedophile abuse, Patrick Smyth reports. Police sources said that the body was probably that of nine-year-old Loubna Benaissa, a Moroccan, who disappeared in August 1992.
Police searches during the afternoon had focussed on empty houses opposite the garage of a local man, Mr Patrick Derochette (33), with a record for paedophile abuse. He was arrested and was later reported to have confessed. Loubna Benaissa is believed to have passed the garage on the way to a shop on the night she disappeared.
Her sister, Nabella, an 18-year-old school student who wears the traditional white scarf of her community, has been one of the most articulate and moving spokespeople of the families of disappeared children and critics of police inaction on the issue. Early this morning the family was under police guard, receiving counselling.