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12 June 2006
BRUSSELS — Police have identified a suspect in the disappearance of two step-sisters who vanished from a Liège funfair in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The city’s public prosecution office said the suspect, a convicted paedophile, was seen in a café frequented by the missing girls’ family on Friday night.
Police have conducted checks on all convicted child sex offenders who have been released on parole and the suspect is the only one who has not yet been located.
Nathalie Mahy, 10, and Stacy Lemmens, 7, disappeared early on Saturday morning at a funfair on the Sint-Leonardstraat in Liège.
The father of the two girls alerted the motorcycle club of which he is a member and fellow club members conducted a search that night, but to no avail.
The search for the two girls continues, but if no clues are found on Monday, police will widen the perimeter of the search. A search was conducted on Sunday at the site of the old hospital Bavière.
Meanwhile, the public prosecution office has urged the possible kidnapper not to harm the two girls.
Deputy prosecutor Christian Pâque reminded the suspect that crimes of kidnapping carry harsh sentences and that the culprit would be advised to return the girls safe and sound.
The two girls were last seen at the funfair at about 2am on Saturday. They were last seen near a jumping castle situated close to a café where the parents spent part of the evening.
The recently-joined family lives in Chênée. They returned to their former home town district of Sint-Leonard in Liège to visit the funfair on Friday.
The father left the funfair at about 1am and left the six children with his girlfriend. When the woman went to gather the children together at about 3am, Nathalie and Stacy were missing.
[Copyright Expatica News 2006]
Subject: Belgian news