Text Pages \ Satanic links to Belgian murder trail (THE SUNDAY TIMES, 29 DECEMBER 1996)

29 DECEMBER 1996• THE SUNDAY TIMES

Satanic links to Belgian murder trail

by Peter Conradi Brussels

SATANIC sects involved in bizarre rites including human sacrifice are being linked by Belgian police with this summer's string of grisly paedophile murders in which at least four children died.

Five witnesses came forward last week and described how black masses were held, at which children were killed in front of audiences said to have included prominent members of Belgian society. One investigator said it was "like going to the Middle Ages."

The tentacles of the sects appear to have stretched beyond the borders of Belgium to Holland, Germany and even America. The witnesses — several of whom claim to have received death threats — say that young babies were handed over by their parents willingly in return for money. In other cases the victims were abducted.

The witnesses, who are believed to have identified the sites where the masses took place to the police, said organisers had also photographed participants and threatened to hand over their pictures if they went to the police.

The investigation centres Abrasax, a self-styled institute of black magic, whose headquarters in the village of Forchies-la-Marche in southern Belgium was raided by police last week. Human skulls were among the objects removed from the run-down building.

Forchies-la-Marche is near the city of Charleroi, where Marc Dutroux, the unemployed electrician accused of the paedophile killings, was arrested in August. The bodies of four victims of the ring were dug up at properties he owned — but he is feared to have killed many more. Police have long suspected that Dutroux, a convicted paedophile, was part of an international network which abducted children, sexually abused them and then killed them. Their activities appear to have been financed by the sale of pornographic videos filmed by members of the ring.

However, the revelation of a possible Satanic link has added a bizarre twist to the affair, which has shaken the police and judiciary and plunged Belgium into an unprecedented wave of soul-searching over the past few months. Investigators are still trying to determine the precise nature of the links between the Satanists and the paedophile groups.

In a separate twist, a Belgian newspaper claimed yesterday that a former European commissioner was among a group of judges, senior politicians, lawyers and policemen who attended orgies held in a Belgian chateau and organised by Michel Nihoul, one of Dutroux's alleged accomplices. La Derniere Heure, which claimed to have a guest list, did not name the commissioner but said he "came with a girl, Josette, nicknamed Jojo, the Bomb".

Belgian police, using bulldozers and mechanical diggers, resumed their search yesterday of disused mine shafts in Jumet, a suburb of Charleroi, where they believe Dutroux and his gang may have buried bodies. A team of 12 pot-holers has also been called in.

"We are convinced that we are going to find something interesting here,"" said Guy Soumoy, a spokesman for the local police.

Police first searched the area, with its warren of abandoned mine shafts, two months ago, after Dutroux suggested they look there. They returned earlier this month after a further, apparently more detailed tip-off from Michelle Martin, Dutroux's wife and alleged accomplice.