Dutroux: I tried to protect girls
 |
Dutroux: Testimony was at times rambling and contradictory
Story Tools
VIDEO
|
The alleged child killer faces trial eight years after his arrest
|
|
ARLON, Belgium -- Marc Dutroux has taken the stand in Arlon, Belgium, to deny kidnapping and killing two young girls found buried in his garden.
The Belgian former electrician told the court he kept them in a dungeon to protect them being sent into prostitution by members of a child sex ring.
Dutroux testified on the third day of his trial for a string of gruesome pedophile murders in the mid-1990s that traumatized Belgium and brought scorn on its police and legal system.
"I didn't want this to happen to them," the 47-year-old former electrician told the court under questioning by presiding judge Stephane Goux.
A convicted multiple child rapist, Dutroux is charged with the abduction and rape of six girls and the murder of four.
In at times rambling and contradictory testimony, he told the jury all the crimes of which he is accused were carried out by a criminal gang based in the city of Charleroi that had enjoyed "police and political protection."
The last two victims survived his arrest in 1996 and were found in a makeshift cell in a cellar to which he had built a concealed door in a house in Marcinelle, southern Belgium.
Dutroux denied any involvement in the kidnapping and death of eight-year-olds Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo, the first two girls to be abducted in July 1995, telling the court he had found them at his home with his wife and two other men -- Michel Nihoul and Bernard Weinstein.
Asked by the judge why he had build the trap door to the cell, in which the girls were held for months, he said: "I wanted to create a hiding place to spare them from being sent to a prostitution ring."
He accused co-defendant Nihoul, as well as Weinstein, a Frenchman found murdered and buried in Dutroux's garden in 1996, of planning to use the children for prostitution.
"Nihoul wanted the girls," he said.
When Dutroux mentioned his name, Nihoul grabbed the phone to call his lawyer from the defendants' box, which is protected by bulletproof glass.
"I did all the electrical work myself," said Dutroux of the dungeon. "I put in three different lights to light up the place really well," said Dutroux.
"It was urgent to work quickly because we had to get the girls," Dutroux said.
He added: "When I learned from Bernard Weinstein that it was for pedophilia, I didn't even know what pedophilia was. It was all Chinese to me," Dutroux told the court.
Asked why he had not denounced his accomplices sooner, he said: "I didn't want to endanger my family."
'Protecting ex-wife'
He spoke about his childhood and career, depicting himself as the victim of an authoritarian mother.
Asked why he had changed his testimony so often during nearly seven years in custody, he said it was to protect his ex-wife, Michelle Martin, 44, on trial with him.
Co-defendants Nihoul, Lelievre and Martin in court.
|
|
"My statements were full of lies," he said, while insisting that this time he would tell "the whole truth."
The trial is expected to last at least two months. Dutroux, who was jailed in 1989 for a series of violent rapes, including on minors, faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
On Tuesday prosecutors painted a gruesome picture of crimes they claim the defendants committed against six young girls during the 1990s.
Prosecutor Michel Bourlet read from a 74-page indictment and presented to the 12-member jury a chronological catalogue of offenses.
"They knew what they were doing," Bourlet told the court at Arlon. "Marc Dutroux sought to have sex with the young girls without their consent."
'Starved to death'
He depicted Dutroux as a dark and sinister figure, the main perpetrator in seeking out six girls to take to his specially built basement holding cell "where he and others raped, abused and murdered."
|
Journalists surround one of Dutroux's lawyers outside the court.
|
Bourlet described how four of the girls died, saying Julie and Melissa -- two 8-year-old schoolmates -- starved to death while imprisoned in the cellar and were later buried.
An Marchal, 17 and Eefje Lambrecks, 19, were "drugged, wrapped in plastic" before being dumped in a backyard grave. "The victims were not dead when they were buried... according to their autopsies," Bourlet said.
Investigators have spent eight years preparing the trial against the four who were arrested in 1996.
Although two of the girls were rescued by police, the case caused a huge public outcry after revelations of inept police work.
Dutroux is also charged with killing an accomplice, Bernard Weinstein, and raping three Slovak girls.
As well as the charges facing Dutroux, Nihoul, 62, faces charges of kidnapping Laetitia Delhez, one of the rescued girls, who was 14 at the time. He denies involvement.
Dutroux's ex-wife, Martin, 44, is accused of conspiracy in the kidnapping, and their friend Michel Lelievre, 32, faces kidnapping, rape and drugs possession charges.
Copyright 2004 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
