Child killer wants parole hearing postponed

[Punch]

Notorious child intercourse killer Marc Dutroux has asked for a parole hearing scheduled for next week to be postponed in order to finalise a proposal to be reintegrated into society, Belgian media reported Sunday.

The French-language public TV station RTBF said on its website the special Brussels court is likely to give Dutroux and his lawyer up to three months to be able to complete their proposal for parole — a plan experts deem has virtually no chance of success.

The closed-door hearing had initially been scheduled for Monday.

In February, the same court rejected a similar demand in which Dutroux asked to serve out the rest of his sentence under electronic surveillance, ruling there were no prospects Belgium's "most hated man" could be reintegrated into society.

Dutroux was 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.

His latest request was made in late April after he had served approximately two-thirds of his sentence and comes after last year's successful appeal by his wife and accomplice, Michelle Martin, whose release from prison to a convent in central Belgium caused an uproar.

Martin, 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.



The Punch