📰 Article 1 — Dutroux, Zandvoort: When Institutions Protect the Perpetrators

There are cases that should never be forgotten. Not because they are fascinating. But because they reveal something unbearable about the world we live in: that children can be tortured, raped, and killed—and that their perpetrators can be protected by the very people who should be prosecuting them.

The Dutroux case began in 1996 as a news item and turned into a political and judicial earthquake. In 2004, Marc Dutroux was sentenced to life in prison for the abductions, rapes, and murders of young girls and teenagers—Julie and Mélissa, An and Eefje, Sabine and Laëtitia. The outcry across the country led more than 350,000 people to flood the streets of Brussels during the “White March.” Three hundred fifty thousand citizens took to the streets for murdered children. An entire country refusing to remain silent. Wikipedia

But what the Belgian justice system sought to bury was the issue of the network. The Zandvoort CD case revealed the existence of a Europe-wide child sexual exploitation network. According to Interpol, the case file contains 93,081 photos of actual crimes against children. The majority of the abuses took place in pornography studios and youth protection facilities under the supervision of social services. Children were abused in institutions meant to protect them. Fr-Academic

Judge Connerotte writes