Sex-ring search focuses on cellar
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Brussels (Reuter) - Police searching for the bodies of missing girls in Belgium's child sex scandal found "hot spots" in two houses owned by the chief suspect, Marc Dutroux, a convicted paedophile rapist. And a detective arrested on Sunday in connection with the investigations was formally charged yesterday.
At its first meeting since the summer break, the Belgian cabinet agreed on tougher controls on the early release from jail of sex offenders. Dutroux, an unemployed electrician, was freed 10 years early in 1992 after serving three years of a 13-year sentence for raping five children.
A gendarmerie spokesman, Jean-Marie Boudin, said in the Charleroi suburb of Jumet that investigators using British-made radar-imaging equipment had found two "hot spots" in one house and one in another. "Now we are using only the British apparatus in the cellar of the Jumet house. Up to now this apparatus has indicated two places of interest in the cellar." The equipment is triggered by cavities underground.
Last night exhausted police suspended their searches until Monday. South of Charleroi, in Neufchateau, the nerve-centre of the investigations, magistrates confirmed charges of vehicle theft, insurance fraud and forgery against chief police detective Georges Zicot. Dutroux has been linked to organised vehicle theft and police are investigating the child sex and theft ring together.
Belgian police are going to Bratislava and Prague to search for missing Belgian children. Dutroux has been named in Bratislava as a suspect in the murder of a young Slovak woman. Interpol said he was also believed to have planned the kidnapping of at least one other Slovak woman. A spokesman for the Belgian gendarmerie's special disappearances squad said they were also likely to contact colleagues in Austria investigating what seemed to be a "child-for-hire" network across central Europe.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments