AFP/Brussels

A Belgian court has turned down a request by notorious child sex killer Marc Dutroux for early release from prison to serve out the rest of his sentence at home under electronic surveillance.
The ruling against Belgium’s “most hated man” cited the risk that he might offend again after being jailed for life in 2004 for the kidnap and rape between June 1995 and August 1996 of six young and teenage girls, four of whom died.
“There are no grounds on which to base a (release) under surveillance by electronic bracelet,” the court said, citing the “absence of any prospect that Dutroux” could be reintegrated into society.
Dutroux, 56, earlier this month asked a special court that he be released and placed under house arrest with an electronic tag to keep track of his movements.
Dutroux was not in court for yesterday’s ruling, which was based on psychiatric, prison and judicial reports about the former electrician who had claimed that he could find work as either a plumber or floor-layer.
The reports said this was not a realistic possibility, adding that where he would live was uncertain while there was also a risk that he might commit fresh crimes or harass his victims or their families.
Dutroux’s request for early release horrified Belgium, reviving painful memories of its worst criminal case which put paedophilia firmly on the map, to the country’s evident shame and deep unease.
His mother, who no longer has any contact with her son, insisted yesterday that he should not be freed (see sidebar, above).
Dutroux’s approach to the courts followed a successful appeal in August by his wife and accomplice, Michelle Martin, whose release from prison to a convent in central Belgium caused an uproar.
The 52-year-old mother of three of Dutroux’s own children, and a former schoolteacher, was granted release on parole after serving barely half of a 30-year sentence.
Martin was found guilty of helping Dutroux hold his victims prisoner and of complicity in the deaths of two eight-year-olds, found starved to death in a locked cellar.
Dutroux was arrested in August 1996 after a 14-year-old went missing. She was found two days later along with a girl of 12, cowering in the basement of one of his homes.
The case then took a gruesome turn when the bodies of the two eight-year-olds were found buried in the garden of his main residence. Less than a month later, the bodies of two more girls were found in another property owned by Dutroux.
Public shock turned to fury when 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.

Belgian child killer’s mother warns against his early release
The mother of Marc Dutroux, Belgium’s most notorious child killer, said that he would re-offend if released early, in an interview published yesterday hours before a court was due to decide on his parole.
“I am certain he will start again,” 78-year-old Jeannine told Le Soir Magazine in her first public comments since her son was jailed for life in 2004.
“Marc isn’t ready to be released because he still wants to attribute to others the responsibility for what he did,” she told the publication, which is usually published on Wednesday but rushed out a Monday edition with the interview.
Under Belgian law, criminals can be freed after serving a third of their sentences, or after 15 years in the case of those who have received life.
Dutroux, who was arrested in 1996, was sentenced to life in 2004.
He had already served two extra years under a separate charge, allowing him to request early release this year.