Court hears Belgian gruesome sex details
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-03-03 14:26

Well over seven years after his arrest, convicted rapist Marc Dutroux was expected to defend himself Wednesday against charges of kidnapping, rape and murder which are the heart of a horrific sexual abuse case which left four girls dead and a nation in shock.

Judge Stephane Goux was to call on Dutroux and three co-defendants to take the stand for the first time and answer questions before the 12-member jury.

Dutroux puts his head down on the desk in drawing made during his trial. [AP]

Dutroux's four lawyers huddled with their client in a jail cell Tuesday night to finalize strategy, but one of his attorneys, Ronny Baudewijn, said Dutroux will largely plot the way ahead himself.

``We will help prepare him,'' he said, ``but we are not the ones to tell him how to act or what to say.''

Wednesday's question and answer session, which will not force Dutroux to enter a plea, follows two days of mostly procedural business in what has been dubbed Belgium's ``trial of the century.'' Dutroux faces life imprisonment if convicted.

Dutroux and three others, including his ex-wife, were arrested in 1996 for allegedly kidnapping six girls.

The prosecution says the girls were randomly snatched from streets around Belgium, held prisoner in Dutroux's homes near the southern city of Charleroi and subjected to repeated sexual abuse in a basement cell.

The prosecution has said two 8-year-old schoolmates starved to death while two teenagers were drugged and then buried alive. Two girls were rescued from Dutroux's cell after he was arrested. The case caused a public outcry after revelations of inept police work. In the wake of the arrests, more than 300,000 people protested in one of Belgium's biggest demonstrations to demand a better judicial system.

Police failed to find four of the girls alive despite tip-offs that Dutroux, who was out on parole for the rape of five women in the 1980s, could be involved in the case.

On Tuesday, prosecutors opened their case, painting a gruesome picture of sexual abuse and imprisonment.

Dutroux's lawyers said there was little chance their client would get a fair trial following the massive media publicity over the past weeks.

``A large part of the case has already been published,'' Xavier Magnee told the court. He suggested Dutroux was only a small part of a wider criminal network that catered to buyers of girls for sex, including a satanic cult.

They also suggested co-defendant Michel Nihoul_ a small-time Brussels businessman with fraud convictions_ was running such a network.

Nihoul, 62, faces charges of kidnapping Laetitia Delhez, one of the rescued girls, who was 14 at the time. His lawyer denied any such involvement Tuesday.

Besides Dutroux and Nihoul, in the dock are Dutroux's ex-wife, Michelle Martin, 44, who is accused of conspiracy in the kidnapping, and a friend Michel Lelievre, 32, who faces kidnapping, rape and drugs possession charges.

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