Belgium, still traumatized by Dutroux?

RTL-TVI is programming a docu-fiction this evening which is bound to provoke reactions. Between archives and imagined scenes, he anticipates what could happen if Marc Dutroux were released from prison…

RTL Belgium

Published on 08/10/2024 at 2:00 p.m.

By AS

PourCiné-Télé-Revue

In 2004, the most resounding and publicized trial in our country ended. Marc Dutroux was sentenced to life imprisonment, convicted of rape of minors, kidnapping and murder.

This sentence was accompanied by a release to the government for a period of ten years. We thought we would never see the “monster” parked up again. But life doesn’t mean he could die in prison. In theory, Marc Dutroux could be released in 2036…

Already after serving fifteen years, he requested early parole. It had been refused to him. In 2019, he reiterated his request. Getting him out of prison is the crusade of his lawyer, Maître Bruno Dayez. His arguments? “I think that 25 years of confinement in a situation of absolute isolation is in terms of punishment a measure which now becomes inhumane. Therefore, I consider that the conditions of his detention are completely degrading and border in a certain way on torture. This exceptional regime would lead anyone to suicide,” he told us when we met him a few months ago (see his interview in your Ciné-Télé-Revue).

Marc Dutroux is effectively subject to a special regime which prevents him from having any contact whatsoever with other prisoners. “He is being held in the square,” insists his counsel. He only goes out to the courtyard when no one is there. The images filmed without his knowledge at Nivelles prison and broadcast this evening show an old man with a long beard pacing back and forth in a square courtyard. Unrecognizable compared to the memory we kept of him at his trial… “He is more in danger than dangerous,” insists Bruno Dayez.

You will hear him defend his thesis this evening. Under the pretext of the twenty years that have passed since the trial, RTL-TVI imagines in this program what would happen if Maître Dayez won his fight. Dutroux, free: is it possible? And if so: what would her life be like?, asks Julie Denayer. On this question which raises debate – not to say leads to an outcry -, the president of the sentence enforcement court, the former judge Christian Panier and owner of Michelle Martin’s home, the journalist Dominique Demoulin, the expert psychiatrist Samuel Leistedt who examined Dutroux, the partner of Eefje’s dad, Gino Russo. Jean-Denis Lejeune joined the speakers after declining Julie Denayer’s proposal.

Obviously, this documentary looks back very extensively on the past (with many of the channel’s archives) from the announcement of the disappearance of Julie and Mélissa to the special news which informed that their bodies had been found. We see again the people calling for the death penalty at the time of the trial and this screaming crowd in front of the home which welcomed Michelle Martin free at the end of her sentence. We remember how the release of Michel Lelièvre was contested. An accomplice of Dutroux, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for criminal conspiracy, child kidnapping, kidnapping and drug trafficking. He had spent 23 years behind bars. Released on conditions, he was beaten in the street. Calls for lynching and a manhunt were launched on social networks. What would it be like if it were Marc Dutroux? Much worse? It is legitimate to assume this.

It is on this scenario that the fictional part of this show embarks, with sequences of false news flashes and scenes played by actors to immerse us in this probability. Thus Dutroux would be housed in a monastery, would disguise himself with wigs to avoid being recognized, etc. We’ll let you judge the relevance of this bias.

More interesting are the questions that this hypothesis raises. Should we ensure protection against an angry segment of the population and how? Is prison a solution against criminals? What do we do with them in our society: give them a place or ban them forever? Is Dutroux the right example to ask these fundamental questions?

Because nothing is less certain that he will one day meet all the conditions which will lead to a favorable decision by the sentence enforcement court. He should provide proof of housing, income (either work or social security). The decision of the TAP must be taken unanimously and in this case in addition to the judge and the assessors, two judges from the criminal court sit there. Under no circumstances would anyone be allowed to reintegrate into society who would still be a danger to others. However, all the psychiatric experts who saw Marc Dutroux considered that he was a dangerous psychopath. “The evaluations of my predecessors were quite current,” confirms Dr. Samuel Leisted, the last appointed. As a reminder, Dutroux was already a repeat offender in 1995. What assurance do we have that he will not commit a crime if in more than twenty years, his psychological profile has not changed?

His lawyer’s point of view differs from this analysis, obviously. But this sentence is unanimous: “All these traumatic events have left significant after-effects, including in the generation of those who did not know it, it has become much more than a criminal affair but the paragon of crime absolute, absolute evil,” asserts Bruno Dayez. This program is also the demonstration that two decades after the events, the Dutroux case still raises just as many emotions. An American specialist in this cold case

Among the speakers, Matt Graves sheds interesting light on the personality of Dutroux. He reveals to us his profile as a manipulator, what he told his cellmate about his plan to build caches, long before Julie and Mélissa were kidnapped. But who is this Matt Graves, presented as an expert in criminal affairs? An American, he came to Belgium from his native Texas at the age of 25, for love. It’s 1995 and… he only hears about Julie and Mélissa who we’re looking for. Matt Graves, like all Belgians, follows the slightest twist in the Dutroux affair. He also has a passion: true crimes, he listens to them and decides to carry them out in turn. The Dutroux affair imposes itself on his mind. For this podcast, he gathered meetings, investigated and told it in twelve episodes in English on behalf of a large American podcast publisher. “The monster” also compiles the testimonies of parents and magistrates. “The Monster” was a listening success which opened the doors to… RTBF, which he convinced of his podcast project on the Killers of Walloon Brabant. For this cold case too, he collected valuable and previously unpublished elements.

“Marc Dutroux, a free man? », Tuesday October 8, 8:25 p.m., RTL-TVI

Belgium, still traumatized by Dutroux?

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