The two surviving victims of serial killer Marc Dutroux have turned down an offer from Amazon Prime Video to cooperate on a documentary about the affair.
Dutroux is now serving life in prison for the kidnapping of six young girls in 1995-96 and the murder of four of them.
Two of his victims were freed by police – Laetitia Delhez (then 14) and 12-year-old Sabine Dardenne. Laetitia had been abducted six days before, Sabine just over 12 weeks.
Amazon wanted to concentrate the story of the case on the two survivors, but the answer is no. The streaming service has employed the services of VTM journalist Thomas Van Hemeledonck to make contact with representatives of the two women, now aged 39 and 37. Van Hemeledonck in the past made a number of documentaries on the case.
“Not for €50,000 euros would Sabine want to say anything about Dutroux,” her lawyer Jean-Philippe Rivière told Sudpresse.
“After the trial, she wrote her story down in a book. And as far as she's concerned, the case is closed once and for all.”
The mail request came from Van Hemeledonck.
“I received an email of four lines asking if Sabine would like to cooperate,” Rivière said. “She would receive compensation, but no amount was mentioned. There was only talk of a large budget and a reportage that wants to give an overall picture of the case. However, Sabine does not care: it is and will remain no.”
According to Het Nieuwsblad, Laetitia’s lawyer has also received such a request, which he has passed on to his client. She has still to reply, but the chance is slim that the response will be different. The two young girls spent those nine days of horror together in Dutroux’s house, and since then have maintained a similar position: no more public statements on the Dutroux case.
The father of another victim, Paul Marchal, whose daughter An (17) was abducted with her friend Eefje (19) in Ostend in August 1995 and later found buried in September 1996, said he had not yet been contacted, but would take a cautious approach.
“No, I have not been asked about that. I am not immediately reluctant. But if I were asked, I would first need to know what the intention is, and how the makers plan to present the facts.”
