Expatica news

Child-killer Dutroux back in court on stolen car scam

10 January 2005

BRUSSELS – Child killer Marc Dutroux and an alleged accomplice, Georges Zicot, appeared in court on Monday on charges of trafficking in stolen cars.

The car crime dossier implicating Dutroux was first transferred to the court in Nivelles in Mai 1998 but put on hold while he faced more serious charges of rape and murder.

A van was stolen by Bernard Weinstein and Pierre Rochow from the Fabricom firm in Braine l’Alleud in the autumn of 1995.

They left it in a hangar leased by Gerard Pinon to Michelle Martin, Dutroux’s wife.

Pinon discovered the vehicle and alerted Zicot, at that time working for the police, who then drove the van to a parking lot in Ransart.

Zicot fabricated police statements to say that the van had been found on the public highway and allowed Pinon, a police informer, to take the EUR 3,720 award offered by the insurance company.

Dutroux believed he had been double-crossed by Rochow and his friend Philippe Divers and forced the two men and the girlfriend of one to the Weinstein chalet in Jumet.

The young woman escaped and alerted the police who arrested Dutroux and put him behind bars from December 1995 to March 1996.

It was during this time in prison that two young girls kidnapped by Dutroux, Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo, died in the cellar of his home.

Eight people are on trial for belonging to a car smuggling ring and Zicot stands accused of fraud and passive corruption.

[Copyright Expatica 2005]

Subject: Belgian news