BRUSSELS – A key discovered in a prison locker belonging to Marc Dutroux could have opened the suspected child killer’s handcuffs, a Belgian state prosecutor confirmed on Friday.

The key was discovered hidden in a container of salt in Dutroux’s locker at Arlon prison on Wednesday.

At the time prison authorities said it was an old model that Dutroux could not have used to open his handcuffs.

But Prosecutor Albert Militis said on Friday that this was not true.

The prosecutor accepted that the key had not been made to fit Dutroux’s ‘new generation’ handcuffs but that it could nevertheless have been used to open them.

Dutroux himself claims he knew nothing about existence of the key.

He only found out about it via media reports, he insisted on Thursday.

Militis said an enquiry had been launched into how the key had ended up in Dutroux’s locker and added that several prison guards and prisoners would be questioned.

Dutroux is currently on trial in Arlon for allegedly kidnapping six girls and murdering four of them.

[Copyright Expatica News 2004]

Subject: Belgian news