The house is still uninhabited. The facade is boarded up, and in front of it are old garbage bags. The sound of cars and trains speeding by is continuous. The environment is grey, drab and looks dilapidated. Even the hopeful painting over the full length of the empty house, of a boy with a kite, has not withstood the test of time. Graffiti painters drew tags over it as far as their arms reached.
In 1996, one of the greatest tragedies in recent Belgian history unfolded in this house on Avenue de Philippeville in Marcinelle, Wallonia, an impoverished district of Charleroi. Marc Dutroux held a total of six girls here in 1995 and 1996 in a cellar he built himself. Julie, Melissa, An, Eefje, Sabine and Laetitia. All six were abused, the first four girls did not survive the kidnapping. The latter two were released after eighty and six days respectively. The images of the liberated girls, filmed from the viaduct that is still here, many Belgians are etched in the memory.
The Dutroux case brought the country to the brink of revolution. On October 20, 1996, 300,000 furious Belgians took to the streets in what is known as the White March – one of the largest demonstrations ever in Belgium. A quarter of a century later, the traces of the business are still visible, and not just in Marcinelle.
two girls
“I’m going to give you two girls.” With those words, Marc Dutroux himself caused the breakthrough in August 1996 in a file that would occupy Belgium for years. The officers who had arrested him for the disappearance of 14-year-old Laetitia Delhez a week earlier had no idea that he was also behind the disappearance of five more girls, from all over Belgium.
After the release of Sabine Dardenne and Laetitia Delhez, and the subsequent discovery of the bodies of the four other girls, a shock wave swept through the country that was about much more than just this case.
The country was already in a crisis of confidence pre-Dutroux, says sociologist Mark Elchardus. “In the fifteen preceding years, we saw a decline in trust in the institutions.” It didn’t come out of nowhere: the eighties and nineties were turbulent in Belgium to say the least. The Gang of Nivelles killed a total of 28 victims in a series of robberies. The culprits were never found, and rumors surfaced that people would be involved in the justice system and politicians themselves. And in 1991 there was the never fully elucidated murder of politician André Cools, presumably at the behest of another politician. In the aftermath, a whole series of political scandals came to light.
In the slipstream of this case, the taboo to talk about sexual abuse has been broken
Dirk De Wachter psychiatrist
Errors in the Dutroux case gave an extra blow to the already existing distrust of the rule of law and politics. Dutroux and his – accomplice – wife Michelle Martin had already been convicted of raping minors. After serving only three years of their sentences, they were released early, with the approval of the Minister of Justice. During the investigation into the disappearances, a protracted war between the various police forces meant that information was not properly exchanged. “The partly rotten system was already in need of renewal,” says lawyer Joris Van Cauter, “but the pus really burst open due to the Dutroux case.”
‘In another context, the Dutroux case would not have led to such a deep crisis,’ thinks sociologist Elchardus. All kinds of conspiracy theories got a foothold. Many believed that senior politicians and the judiciary had tried to keep Dutroux over their heads because they were part of a larger pedophile network. Dutroux’s escape from prison in 1998 added to that suspicion, even though he was incarcerated again by evening that same day.
The protesters in the White March demanded change: from the police, the judiciary and from the stagnant politics. A parliamentary inquiry and a series of reforms followed. The police forces were amalgamated into one service with two levels, to avoid a new police war. A federal prosecutor’s office has also been added since then, and early release has been made more difficult.
‘The Belgian disease’
The Dutroux case also dealt a serious blow to Belgium’s image. With three national languages, six governments and holding the world record for longest cabinet formation ever, the country is already an easy target for ridicule. “Belgians themselves have the strong impression: this country doesn’t work,” says Elchardus. Right or wrong, the Dutroux case proved to be the confirmation of that image, and thus became a symbol of something greater. At the time, some media spoke of “the Belgian disease“, or even “Belga nostra”.
Abroad, too, the case contributed to the image of a ‘failed state‘. In some foreign reports Belgium was portrayed as a sanctuary for pedophilia and corruption. More than fifteen years after Dutroux, a Swiss political scientist in a column still hard to go to Belgium, after an accident with a Belgian bus in that country: „I am not surprised. A Belgian tour bus. […] The country from which the European president comes, which can produce nothing good except chocolate, mussels and chips.” To ultimately refer to the ultimate ‘typical Belgian’ miss: Dutroux.
How sensitive the matter is in Belgium became apparent when writer Kristien Hemmerechts published a book in 2014 (The woman who fed the dogs), in which she put herself in the shoes of Michelle Martin, Dutroux’s wife. In the Netherlands the reviews were positive, but in Flanders there was a huge commotion. Although Hemmerechts certainly did not try to arouse understanding for Martin with her book, her book was understood as an “apology”, she now says about it. “It was almost as if Belgium had discovered another culprit in the case, the response was so emotional and irrational.”
Also the successive early releases of Michelle Martin (2012) and accomplice Michel Lelièvre (2019), and last year the declined request for the early release of Dutroux himself, brought the country into turmoil again. In 2022, a film about the Dutroux case will be released for the first time, so announced. “I think the time is right,” said director Fabrice Du Welz in Belgian media. That is already openly doubted.
memorial garden
Is this a national trauma? “Absolutely”, thinks lawyer Van Cauter. “Like the terrorist attacks at Zaventem airport, or the robberies by the Gang of Nivelles.” Psychiatrist Dirk De Wachter is adamant: “We have to be careful with the term trauma. It is a term for people who experience a terrible event and suffer psychological damage from it. I find it too easy to use that for an entire population.” He prefers to speak of a ‘socially traumatic event’ that has left ‘scars’ behind. “And a lasting place in the collective memory.” A small sign of this can be found in the names database: the ordinary name ‘Marc’ never became popular after 1996.
The Dutroux case has also had an impact on the upbringing of children, De Wachter thinks. The atrocities brought with them a new sense of danger. “Growing children have sometimes been unnecessarily frightened since then, because the case was very exceptional.” Yet De Wachter also sees a positive effect: „In the slipstream of this case, the taboo to talk about sexual abuse has been broken.”
The confidence of the Belgians has still not been fully restored, Van Cauter fears. “That has turned out to be sisyphic work. The heavy boulder keeps rolling upwards, but comes all the way back down due to some incident.” For example, many suspects of the terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels in 2015 and 2016 were from Belgium. In 2019, Belgian student Julie van Espen was murdered during an attempted rape by a man who had previously been convicted of rape, and was free pending his appeal. Research in 2015 showed that less than half of Belgians have confidence in their own constitutional state, compared to two-thirds of the Dutch. Yet Van Cauter calls the Belgian mistrust “partly unjustified”. “The police and judicial reforms have really improved a lot.”
The normal name ‘Marc’ has never become popular after 1996
Earlier this year a decision was finally made about what to do with the infamous Dutroux house in Marcinelle: it will be demolished and there will be a memorial garden. But as far as local residents are concerned, that is not necessary, says a neighbor who already lived there when Dutroux was arrested. “When I take a taxi and tell them where I live, the driver still says: that’s in the street from Dutroux. Everyone comes to film that haunted house here. There is a memorial plaque. Another memorial? We will never forget this event, nor do we want to. But we also want to finally be able to heal, and leave Dutroux behind us.”
With the collaboration of Gabriella Adèr.
Correspondent Anouk van Kampen and justice journalist Gabriella Adèr made a five-part podcast about the traces of the Dutroux case. Listen to him here.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC Handelsblad on 16 October 2021
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of October 16, 2021
The house is still uninhabited. The facade is boarded up, and in front of it are old garbage bags. The sound of cars and trains speeding by is continuous. The environment is grey, drab and looks dilapidated. Even the hopeful painting over the full length of the empty house, of a boy with a kite, has not withstood the test of time. Graffiti painters drew tags over it as far as their arms reached.
In 1996, one of the greatest tragedies in recent Belgian history unfolded in this house on Avenue de Philippeville in Marcinelle, Wallonia, an impoverished district of Charleroi. Marc Dutroux held a total of six girls here in 1995 and 1996 in a cellar he built himself. Julie, Melissa, An, Eefje, Sabine and Laetitia. All six were abused, the first four girls did not survive the kidnapping. The latter two were released after eighty and six days respectively. The images of the liberated girls, filmed from the viaduct that is still here, many Belgians are etched in the memory.
The Dutroux case brought the country to the brink of revolution. On October 20, 1996, 300,000 furious Belgians took to the streets in what is known as the White March – one of the largest demonstrations ever in Belgium. A quarter of a century later, the traces of the business are still visible, and not just in Marcinelle.
two girls
“I’m going to give you two girls.” With those words, Marc Dutroux himself caused the breakthrough in August 1996 in a file that would occupy Belgium for years. The officers who had arrested him for the disappearance of 14-year-old Laetitia Delhez a week earlier had no idea that he was also behind the disappearance of five more girls, from all over Belgium.
After the release of Sabine Dardenne and Laetitia Delhez, and the subsequent discovery of the bodies of the four other girls, a shock wave swept through the country that was about much more than just this case.
The country was already in a crisis of confidence pre-Dutroux, says sociologist Mark Elchardus. “In the fifteen preceding years, we saw a decline in trust in the institutions.” It didn’t come out of nowhere: the eighties and nineties were turbulent in Belgium to say the least. The Gang of Nivelles killed a total of 28 victims in a series of robberies. The culprits were never found, and rumors surfaced that people would be involved in the justice system and politicians themselves. And in 1991 there was the never fully elucidated murder of politician André Cools, presumably at the behest of another politician. In the aftermath, a whole series of political scandals came to light.
In the slipstream of this case, the taboo to talk about sexual abuse has been broken
Dirk De Wachter psychiatrist
Errors in the Dutroux case gave an extra blow to the already existing distrust of the rule of law and politics. Dutroux and his – accomplice – wife Michelle Martin had already been convicted of raping minors. After serving only three years of their sentences, they were released early, with the approval of the Minister of Justice. During the investigation into the disappearances, a protracted war between the various police forces meant that information was not properly exchanged. “The partly rotten system was already in need of renewal,” says lawyer Joris Van Cauter, “but the pus really burst open due to the Dutroux case.”
‘In another context, the Dutroux case would not have led to such a deep crisis,’ thinks sociologist Elchardus. All kinds of conspiracy theories got a foothold. Many believed that senior politicians and the judiciary had tried to keep Dutroux over their heads because they were part of a larger pedophile network. Dutroux’s escape from prison in 1998 added to that suspicion, even though he was incarcerated again by evening that same day.
The protesters in the White March demanded change: from the police, the judiciary and from the stagnant politics. A parliamentary inquiry and a series of reforms followed. The police forces were amalgamated into one service with two levels, to avoid a new police war. A federal prosecutor’s office has also been added since then, and early release has been made more difficult.
‘The Belgian disease’
The Dutroux case also dealt a serious blow to Belgium’s image. With three national languages, six governments and holding the world record for longest cabinet formation ever, the country is already an easy target for ridicule. “Belgians themselves have the strong impression: this country doesn’t work,” says Elchardus. Right or wrong, the Dutroux case proved to be the confirmation of that image, and thus became a symbol of something greater. At the time, some media spoke of “the Belgian disease“, or even “Belga nostra”.
Abroad, too, the case contributed to the image of a ‘failed state‘. In some foreign reports Belgium was portrayed as a sanctuary for pedophilia and corruption. More than fifteen years after Dutroux, a Swiss political scientist in a column still hard to go to Belgium, after an accident with a Belgian bus in that country: „I am not surprised. A Belgian tour bus. […] The country from which the European president comes, which can produce nothing good except chocolate, mussels and chips.” To ultimately refer to the ultimate ‘typical Belgian’ miss: Dutroux.
How sensitive the matter is in Belgium became apparent when writer Kristien Hemmerechts published a book in 2014 (The woman who fed the dogs), in which she put herself in the shoes of Michelle Martin, Dutroux’s wife. In the Netherlands the reviews were positive, but in Flanders there was a huge commotion. Although Hemmerechts certainly did not try to arouse understanding for Martin with her book, her book was understood as an “apology”, she now says about it. “It was almost as if Belgium had discovered another culprit in the case, the response was so emotional and irrational.”
Also the successive early releases of Michelle Martin (2012) and accomplice Michel Lelièvre (2019), and last year the declined request for the early release of Dutroux himself, brought the country into turmoil again. In 2022, a film about the Dutroux case will be released for the first time, so announced. “I think the time is right,” said director Fabrice Du Welz in Belgian media. That is already openly doubted.
memorial garden
Is this a national trauma? “Absolutely”, thinks lawyer Van Cauter. “Like the terrorist attacks at Zaventem airport, or the robberies by the Gang of Nivelles.” Psychiatrist Dirk De Wachter is adamant: “We have to be careful with the term trauma. It is a term for people who experience a terrible event and suffer psychological damage from it. I find it too easy to use that for an entire population.” He prefers to speak of a ‘socially traumatic event’ that has left ‘scars’ behind. “And a lasting place in the collective memory.” A small sign of this can be found in the names database: the ordinary name ‘Marc’ never became popular after 1996.
The Dutroux case has also had an impact on the upbringing of children, De Wachter thinks. The atrocities brought with them a new sense of danger. “Growing children have sometimes been unnecessarily frightened since then, because the case was very exceptional.” Yet De Wachter also sees a positive effect: „In the slipstream of this case, the taboo to talk about sexual abuse has been broken.”
The confidence of the Belgians has still not been fully restored, Van Cauter fears. “That has turned out to be sisyphic work. The heavy boulder keeps rolling upwards, but comes all the way back down due to some incident.” For example, many suspects of the terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels in 2015 and 2016 were from Belgium. In 2019, Belgian student Julie van Espen was murdered during an attempted rape by a man who had previously been convicted of rape, and was free pending his appeal. Research in 2015 showed that less than half of Belgians have confidence in their own constitutional state, compared to two-thirds of the Dutch. Yet Van Cauter calls the Belgian mistrust “partly unjustified”. “The police and judicial reforms have really improved a lot.”
The normal name ‘Marc’ has never become popular after 1996
Earlier this year a decision was finally made about what to do with the infamous Dutroux house in Marcinelle: it will be demolished and there will be a memorial garden. But as far as local residents are concerned, that is not necessary, says a neighbor who already lived there when Dutroux was arrested. “When I take a taxi and tell them where I live, the driver still says: that’s in the street from Dutroux. Everyone comes to film that haunted house here. There is a memorial plaque. Another memorial? We will never forget this event, nor do we want to. But we also want to finally be able to heal, and leave Dutroux behind us.”
With the collaboration of Gabriella Adèr.
Correspondent Anouk van Kampen and justice journalist Gabriella Adèr made a five-part podcast about the traces of the Dutroux case. Listen to him here.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC Handelsblad on 16 October 2021
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of October 16, 2021
The house is still uninhabited. The facade is boarded up, and in front of it are old garbage bags. The sound of cars and trains speeding by is continuous. The environment is grey, drab and looks dilapidated. Even the hopeful painting over the full length of the empty house, of a boy with a kite, has not withstood the test of time. Graffiti painters drew tags over it as far as their arms reached.
In 1996, one of the greatest tragedies in recent Belgian history unfolded in this house on Avenue de Philippeville in Marcinelle, Wallonia, an impoverished district of Charleroi. Marc Dutroux held a total of six girls here in 1995 and 1996 in a cellar he built himself. Julie, Melissa, An, Eefje, Sabine and Laetitia. All six were abused, the first four girls did not survive the kidnapping. The latter two were released after eighty and six days respectively. The images of the liberated girls, filmed from the viaduct that is still here, many Belgians are etched in the memory.
The Dutroux case brought the country to the brink of revolution. On October 20, 1996, 300,000 furious Belgians took to the streets in what is known as the White March – one of the largest demonstrations ever in Belgium. A quarter of a century later, the traces of the business are still visible, and not just in Marcinelle.
two girls
“I’m going to give you two girls.” With those words, Marc Dutroux himself caused the breakthrough in August 1996 in a file that would occupy Belgium for years. The officers who had arrested him for the disappearance of 14-year-old Laetitia Delhez a week earlier had no idea that he was also behind the disappearance of five more girls, from all over Belgium.
After the release of Sabine Dardenne and Laetitia Delhez, and the subsequent discovery of the bodies of the four other girls, a shock wave swept through the country that was about much more than just this case.
The country was already in a crisis of confidence pre-Dutroux, says sociologist Mark Elchardus. “In the fifteen preceding years, we saw a decline in trust in the institutions.” It didn’t come out of nowhere: the eighties and nineties were turbulent in Belgium to say the least. The Gang of Nivelles killed a total of 28 victims in a series of robberies. The culprits were never found, and rumors surfaced that people would be involved in the justice system and politicians themselves. And in 1991 there was the never fully elucidated murder of politician André Cools, presumably at the behest of another politician. In the aftermath, a whole series of political scandals came to light.
In the slipstream of this case, the taboo to talk about sexual abuse has been broken
Dirk De Wachter psychiatrist
Errors in the Dutroux case gave an extra blow to the already existing distrust of the rule of law and politics. Dutroux and his – accomplice – wife Michelle Martin had already been convicted of raping minors. After serving only three years of their sentences, they were released early, with the approval of the Minister of Justice. During the investigation into the disappearances, a protracted war between the various police forces meant that information was not properly exchanged. “The partly rotten system was already in need of renewal,” says lawyer Joris Van Cauter, “but the pus really burst open due to the Dutroux case.”
‘In another context, the Dutroux case would not have led to such a deep crisis,’ thinks sociologist Elchardus. All kinds of conspiracy theories got a foothold. Many believed that senior politicians and the judiciary had tried to keep Dutroux over their heads because they were part of a larger pedophile network. Dutroux’s escape from prison in 1998 added to that suspicion, even though he was incarcerated again by evening that same day.
The protesters in the White March demanded change: from the police, the judiciary and from the stagnant politics. A parliamentary inquiry and a series of reforms followed. The police forces were amalgamated into one service with two levels, to avoid a new police war. A federal prosecutor’s office has also been added since then, and early release has been made more difficult.
‘The Belgian disease’
The Dutroux case also dealt a serious blow to Belgium’s image. With three national languages, six governments and holding the world record for longest cabinet formation ever, the country is already an easy target for ridicule. “Belgians themselves have the strong impression: this country doesn’t work,” says Elchardus. Right or wrong, the Dutroux case proved to be the confirmation of that image, and thus became a symbol of something greater. At the time, some media spoke of “the Belgian disease“, or even “Belga nostra”.
Abroad, too, the case contributed to the image of a ‘failed state‘. In some foreign reports Belgium was portrayed as a sanctuary for pedophilia and corruption. More than fifteen years after Dutroux, a Swiss political scientist in a column still hard to go to Belgium, after an accident with a Belgian bus in that country: „I am not surprised. A Belgian tour bus. […] The country from which the European president comes, which can produce nothing good except chocolate, mussels and chips.” To ultimately refer to the ultimate ‘typical Belgian’ miss: Dutroux.
How sensitive the matter is in Belgium became apparent when writer Kristien Hemmerechts published a book in 2014 (The woman who fed the dogs), in which she put herself in the shoes of Michelle Martin, Dutroux’s wife. In the Netherlands the reviews were positive, but in Flanders there was a huge commotion. Although Hemmerechts certainly did not try to arouse understanding for Martin with her book, her book was understood as an “apology”, she now says about it. “It was almost as if Belgium had discovered another culprit in the case, the response was so emotional and irrational.”
Also the successive early releases of Michelle Martin (2012) and accomplice Michel Lelièvre (2019), and last year the declined request for the early release of Dutroux himself, brought the country into turmoil again. In 2022, a film about the Dutroux case will be released for the first time, so announced. “I think the time is right,” said director Fabrice Du Welz in Belgian media. That is already openly doubted.
memorial garden
Is this a national trauma? “Absolutely”, thinks lawyer Van Cauter. “Like the terrorist attacks at Zaventem airport, or the robberies by the Gang of Nivelles.” Psychiatrist Dirk De Wachter is adamant: “We have to be careful with the term trauma. It is a term for people who experience a terrible event and suffer psychological damage from it. I find it too easy to use that for an entire population.” He prefers to speak of a ‘socially traumatic event’ that has left ‘scars’ behind. “And a lasting place in the collective memory.” A small sign of this can be found in the names database: the ordinary name ‘Marc’ never became popular after 1996.
The Dutroux case has also had an impact on the upbringing of children, De Wachter thinks. The atrocities brought with them a new sense of danger. “Growing children have sometimes been unnecessarily frightened since then, because the case was very exceptional.” Yet De Wachter also sees a positive effect: „In the slipstream of this case, the taboo to talk about sexual abuse has been broken.”
The confidence of the Belgians has still not been fully restored, Van Cauter fears. “That has turned out to be sisyphic work. The heavy boulder keeps rolling upwards, but comes all the way back down due to some incident.” For example, many suspects of the terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels in 2015 and 2016 were from Belgium. In 2019, Belgian student Julie van Espen was murdered during an attempted rape by a man who had previously been convicted of rape, and was free pending his appeal. Research in 2015 showed that less than half of Belgians have confidence in their own constitutional state, compared to two-thirds of the Dutch. Yet Van Cauter calls the Belgian mistrust “partly unjustified”. “The police and judicial reforms have really improved a lot.”
The normal name ‘Marc’ has never become popular after 1996
Earlier this year a decision was finally made about what to do with the infamous Dutroux house in Marcinelle: it will be demolished and there will be a memorial garden. But as far as local residents are concerned, that is not necessary, says a neighbor who already lived there when Dutroux was arrested. “When I take a taxi and tell them where I live, the driver still says: that’s in the street from Dutroux. Everyone comes to film that haunted house here. There is a memorial plaque. Another memorial? We will never forget this event, nor do we want to. But we also want to finally be able to heal, and leave Dutroux behind us.”
With the collaboration of Gabriella Adèr.
Correspondent Anouk van Kampen and justice journalist Gabriella Adèr made a five-part podcast about the traces of the Dutroux case. Listen to him here.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC Handelsblad on 16 October 2021
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of October 16, 2021
The house is still uninhabited. The facade is boarded up, and in front of it are old garbage bags. The sound of cars and trains speeding by is continuous. The environment is grey, drab and looks dilapidated. Even the hopeful painting over the full length of the empty house, of a boy with a kite, has not withstood the test of time. Graffiti painters drew tags over it as far as their arms reached.
In 1996, one of the greatest tragedies in recent Belgian history unfolded in this house on Avenue de Philippeville in Marcinelle, Wallonia, an impoverished district of Charleroi. Marc Dutroux held a total of six girls here in 1995 and 1996 in a cellar he built himself. Julie, Melissa, An, Eefje, Sabine and Laetitia. All six were abused, the first four girls did not survive the kidnapping. The latter two were released after eighty and six days respectively. The images of the liberated girls, filmed from the viaduct that is still here, many Belgians are etched in the memory.
The Dutroux case brought the country to the brink of revolution. On October 20, 1996, 300,000 furious Belgians took to the streets in what is known as the White March – one of the largest demonstrations ever in Belgium. A quarter of a century later, the traces of the business are still visible, and not just in Marcinelle.
two girls
“I’m going to give you two girls.” With those words, Marc Dutroux himself caused the breakthrough in August 1996 in a file that would occupy Belgium for years. The officers who had arrested him for the disappearance of 14-year-old Laetitia Delhez a week earlier had no idea that he was also behind the disappearance of five more girls, from all over Belgium.
After the release of Sabine Dardenne and Laetitia Delhez, and the subsequent discovery of the bodies of the four other girls, a shock wave swept through the country that was about much more than just this case.
The country was already in a crisis of confidence pre-Dutroux, says sociologist Mark Elchardus. “In the fifteen preceding years, we saw a decline in trust in the institutions.” It didn’t come out of nowhere: the eighties and nineties were turbulent in Belgium to say the least. The Gang of Nivelles killed a total of 28 victims in a series of robberies. The culprits were never found, and rumors surfaced that people would be involved in the justice system and politicians themselves. And in 1991 there was the never fully elucidated murder of politician André Cools, presumably at the behest of another politician. In the aftermath, a whole series of political scandals came to light.
In the slipstream of this case, the taboo to talk about sexual abuse has been broken
Dirk De Wachter psychiatrist
Errors in the Dutroux case gave an extra blow to the already existing distrust of the rule of law and politics. Dutroux and his – accomplice – wife Michelle Martin had already been convicted of raping minors. After serving only three years of their sentences, they were released early, with the approval of the Minister of Justice. During the investigation into the disappearances, a protracted war between the various police forces meant that information was not properly exchanged. “The partly rotten system was already in need of renewal,” says lawyer Joris Van Cauter, “but the pus really burst open due to the Dutroux case.”
‘In another context, the Dutroux case would not have led to such a deep crisis,’ thinks sociologist Elchardus. All kinds of conspiracy theories got a foothold. Many believed that senior politicians and the judiciary had tried to keep Dutroux over their heads because they were part of a larger pedophile network. Dutroux’s escape from prison in 1998 added to that suspicion, even though he was incarcerated again by evening that same day.
The protesters in the White March demanded change: from the police, the judiciary and from the stagnant politics. A parliamentary inquiry and a series of reforms followed. The police forces were amalgamated into one service with two levels, to avoid a new police war. A federal prosecutor’s office has also been added since then, and early release has been made more difficult.
‘The Belgian disease’
The Dutroux case also dealt a serious blow to Belgium’s image. With three national languages, six governments and holding the world record for longest cabinet formation ever, the country is already an easy target for ridicule. “Belgians themselves have the strong impression: this country doesn’t work,” says Elchardus. Right or wrong, the Dutroux case proved to be the confirmation of that image, and thus became a symbol of something greater. At the time, some media spoke of “the Belgian disease“, or even “Belga nostra”.
Abroad, too, the case contributed to the image of a ‘failed state‘. In some foreign reports Belgium was portrayed as a sanctuary for pedophilia and corruption. More than fifteen years after Dutroux, a Swiss political scientist in a column still hard to go to Belgium, after an accident with a Belgian bus in that country: „I am not surprised. A Belgian tour bus. […] The country from which the European president comes, which can produce nothing good except chocolate, mussels and chips.” To ultimately refer to the ultimate ‘typical Belgian’ miss: Dutroux.
How sensitive the matter is in Belgium became apparent when writer Kristien Hemmerechts published a book in 2014 (The woman who fed the dogs), in which she put herself in the shoes of Michelle Martin, Dutroux’s wife. In the Netherlands the reviews were positive, but in Flanders there was a huge commotion. Although Hemmerechts certainly did not try to arouse understanding for Martin with her book, her book was understood as an “apology”, she now says about it. “It was almost as if Belgium had discovered another culprit in the case, the response was so emotional and irrational.”
Also the successive early releases of Michelle Martin (2012) and accomplice Michel Lelièvre (2019), and last year the declined request for the early release of Dutroux himself, brought the country into turmoil again. In 2022, a film about the Dutroux case will be released for the first time, so announced. “I think the time is right,” said director Fabrice Du Welz in Belgian media. That is already openly doubted.
memorial garden
Is this a national trauma? “Absolutely”, thinks lawyer Van Cauter. “Like the terrorist attacks at Zaventem airport, or the robberies by the Gang of Nivelles.” Psychiatrist Dirk De Wachter is adamant: “We have to be careful with the term trauma. It is a term for people who experience a terrible event and suffer psychological damage from it. I find it too easy to use that for an entire population.” He prefers to speak of a ‘socially traumatic event’ that has left ‘scars’ behind. “And a lasting place in the collective memory.” A small sign of this can be found in the names database: the ordinary name ‘Marc’ never became popular after 1996.
The Dutroux case has also had an impact on the upbringing of children, De Wachter thinks. The atrocities brought with them a new sense of danger. “Growing children have sometimes been unnecessarily frightened since then, because the case was very exceptional.” Yet De Wachter also sees a positive effect: „In the slipstream of this case, the taboo to talk about sexual abuse has been broken.”
The confidence of the Belgians has still not been fully restored, Van Cauter fears. “That has turned out to be sisyphic work. The heavy boulder keeps rolling upwards, but comes all the way back down due to some incident.” For example, many suspects of the terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels in 2015 and 2016 were from Belgium. In 2019, Belgian student Julie van Espen was murdered during an attempted rape by a man who had previously been convicted of rape, and was free pending his appeal. Research in 2015 showed that less than half of Belgians have confidence in their own constitutional state, compared to two-thirds of the Dutch. Yet Van Cauter calls the Belgian mistrust “partly unjustified”. “The police and judicial reforms have really improved a lot.”
The normal name ‘Marc’ has never become popular after 1996
Earlier this year a decision was finally made about what to do with the infamous Dutroux house in Marcinelle: it will be demolished and there will be a memorial garden. But as far as local residents are concerned, that is not necessary, says a neighbor who already lived there when Dutroux was arrested. “When I take a taxi and tell them where I live, the driver still says: that’s in the street from Dutroux. Everyone comes to film that haunted house here. There is a memorial plaque. Another memorial? We will never forget this event, nor do we want to. But we also want to finally be able to heal, and leave Dutroux behind us.”
With the collaboration of Gabriella Adèr.
Correspondent Anouk van Kampen and justice journalist Gabriella Adèr made a five-part podcast about the traces of the Dutroux case. Listen to him here.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC Handelsblad on 16 October 2021
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of October 16, 2021