CHARLEROI , June 8 — Work to demolish a Belgian property where Marc Dutroux, one of history’s most notorious serial killers, sequestered young girls began yesterday, to make way for a memorial to victims of paedophilia.
The investigation into Belgium’s worst paedophile crimes also established that two eight-year-old girls found starved to death the next day in another Dutroux residence had previously been held in the property, in the city’s Marcinelle district. Public shock turned to fury as it emerged not only that police had missed a string of clues, but that Dutroux had been released from jail in 1992 after serving just three years of a 13-year sentence for the abduction and rape of five girls.