MCYSEKA-Maritime Cyber Security Knowledge Archive

PAEDOPHILE serial killer Marc Dutroux tortured, raped and murdered girls as young as eight in a case that shocked Europe.

Dutroux, now 68, kept his kidnapped victims chained up in a dungeon – earning his infamous nickname as Le Monstre, or The Monster.

AFP

Marc Dutroux, the paedophile at the centre of Belgium’s child abduction and murder scandal, in 1996[/caption]

Reuters

Convicted child rapist Marc Dutroux leaves the Justice Palace of Neufchateau, southern Belgium[/caption]

Collect

Madeleine McCann was three when she vanished while on holiday in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007[/caption]

Dan Charity

Prime suspect and paedophile Christian Brueckner is set for release from jail[/caption]

It comes as a notorious network of paedophiles linked to Dutroux ordered the kidnap of Madeleine McCann, it is feared.

Two of his six known victims starved to death, locked up in his soundproof cellar in Charleroi, Belgium.

The psychopath is also believed to have murdered at least two other girls and sold other children into slavery abroad in a four-year reign of terror – helped by his own wife and other accomplices.

It only ended in 1996 after cops rescued two kidnap victims aged 12 and 14 who had been held captive in the dungeon.

He was arrested in 1996 and jailed for life in 2004 and is thought to have links to European networks of child-sex traffickers.

A former top Belgian official, who led the inquiry into the murderer and child molester Dutroux, says a gang of traffickers could be connected to Madeleine’s disappearance.

Cops investigating prime suspect and paedophile Christian Brueckner — set for release from jail tomorrow — are taking the claims seriously.

Madeleine was three when she vanished while on holiday in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007.

Three days earlier Belgian cops had issued an alert to European police forces over intelligence that a paedophile gang had ordered a small child to be snatched.

Marc Verwilghen, who served as Belgium’s justice minister for three years, told The Sun: “I have never had access to the Madeleine McCann files.

“All I can say is as soon as I heard about the case I had deja vu — because it reminded me straight away of Dutroux.

“When you look at the case it is of course possible Madeleine was stolen to order. The alert that was sent looks like it must have come from Belgian police and it should have been taken seriously.

“Dutroux investigators uncovered reports of possible paedophile rings operating in Belgium at that time but couldn’t finish their enquiry as this was focused on Dutroux, handling him as a lone actor.”

Admitting many “similarities” between the cases, Mr Verwilghen added: “It was clear paedophile networks and child- trafficking really did exist in Europe — we know this since Dutroux, but the enquiry committee was never allowed to look into them properly.

“It was clear that these existed to make money.

“These could be informal networks, one person dealing with another, but they existed.

Dan Charity

Belgium’s Marc Verwilghen fears a gang of traffickers could be connected to Maddie’s disappearance[/caption]

AFP

Three days before Maddie’s disappearance, Belgian cops had issued an alert over intelligence that a paedophile gang had ordered a small child to be snatched[/caption]

“The Dutroux case showed us the abduction of children took organisation and planning and more than one person to make this work.

“Intelligence suggests a paedophile ring in Belgium made an order for a young girl three days before Madeleine McCann was taken. Somebody connected to this group saw Maddie, took a photograph of her and sent it to Belgium. The purchaser agreed that the girl was suitable and Maddie was taken.”

The Belgian police warning first emerged in 2008 when a fax was released as part of a bundle of files surrounding the McCann case.

In 2016, British cops probing her disappearance started looking into a gang of European traffickers, but the theory has never been publicly linked to German Brueckner.

Officials investigating the rapist believe Madeleine was likely stolen to order rather than being snatched by a “lone wolf”.

But their probe is focused solely on his alleged role and not on any wider paedophile network.

A source close to the case in Germany said yesterday: “Police take seriously the claims that emerged from Belgium — that ­Maddie was ordered to be stolen.

“They believe there is no way whoever took her could have been acting alone — that would have made no sense.

“But there is not interest in the network, which creates too many new agencies and they want to keep their focus on the current suspect.”