CNN - Belgian police target possible pedophile network

August 20, 1996
Web posted at: 8:35 p.m. EDT (0035 GMT)

BRUSSELS, Belgium (CNN) -- Police investigating a child-sex ring in Belgium have expanded their search for two teen-age girls beyond the country's borders, authorities said Tuesday.

Convicted rapist Marc Dutroux admitted to police he kidnapped 19-year-old An Marchal and 17-year-old Eefje Lambreks last August. The two disappeared on a camping trip at a Belgian seaside resort.
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Public Prosecutor Michel Bourlet said up to 30 extra investigators would join a team searching for the girls.

"There are elements that allow us to believe that the two girls are still alive," Bourlet told a news conference late Tuesday.

Information from Dutroux and accomplices make police suspect there is a wider network of trafficking in children and teens for pedophiles, child pornography and prostitution.

An's parents said they were grateful for the indication the girls are still alive, and that they did not run away from home, as police had been suggesting.

Paul Marchal appealed to the kidnappers to release the girls unharmed, saying it was better for them as well as the families.
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Some arrests made

At least 15 children and teens have disappeared in Belgium in the past six years. Seven have been found dead, six are missing and two were rescued. Both girls had been sexually abused.

Four gang members have been arrested and charged. Dutroux was formally charged Friday with abduction and illegal imprisonment of children after police raided the house he owned in Charleroi and rescued a 14-year-old girl and a 12-year-old girl from the underground chamber.

Michel Lelievre was charged with the same offense. Michelle Martin, Dutroux' second wife, has been charged as an accomplice. Jean-Michel Nihoul was charged Tuesday with criminal association.

Dutroux led police Saturday to the bodies of 8-year-olds Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo, kidnapped in June 1995 and starved to death in February or March. He denies responsibility for their deaths.

The two girls will be buried in a private ceremony on Thursday followed by a televised public memorial service in Liege at which police expect up to 100,000 people.

As the two friends lay side by side in white coffins on Tuesday, each bearing a brass plaque inscribed simply "Julie" and "Melissa," weeping people filed past at the rate of 500 an hour to pay their respects.

Brussels Bureau Chief Patricia Kelly and Reuters contributed to this report.