Jean Lambrecks, whose daughter Eefje was murdered by serial killer Marc Dutroux in 1995, is to take legal action against a film based on the case due for release next year.
Eefje (19) was kidnapped in Ostend with her friend An Marchal (17) while on an outing while the two were on holiday at the coast with their families.
After Dutroux was unmasked he led police to the bodies, wrapped in plastic and buried in a pit. He has since been sentenced to life for those and three other murders, as well as a series of abductions and rapes.
He remains in prison, and even when the court-ordered sentence notionally comes to an end, the government has the option to keep him in prison for public safety.
In recent days the French press has carried reports that a film based on the case will be produced and appear in 2022, although details are sketchy, and it is not clear on which information sources the story might be based.
Lambrecks is, in any case, a strong believer that the official story of Dutroux as a lone operator, aided only by one junkie confederate and his violence- subjugated wife, is not the full reality.
“I can't help but repeat myself,” he told Nieuwsblad.
“But I am firmly convinced that the legal truth does not correspond to what happened in reality. We published a book about this last year, together with one of the principal investigators of the Neufchâteau Cell. We support all our claims with objective elements and official documents. We've been doing everything we can to bring at least some of the truth to light for years and now our work is being destroyed – for the umpteenth time."
The content of the film is being kept quiet for now, but the director has told the papers in Wallonia that it concerns a young investigators who sees the enquiry in the case moving away from its true direction – a narrative that may be very cinematic, but is also entirely fabricated.
“Just because the makers of the film are going to spin their own version that takes no account of the true facts of the case, another myth is launched here,” Lambrecks said.
“We have been working for years to reconstruct what really happened, and thus to dispel myths, lamentations, innuendo and suppositions. If a story is brought here that is made up by people who have no knowledge of the case, then another untruth is consciously created. We know there is a script because the casting is already underway. This is really beyond shame. This is nothing less than abuse of the victims and relatives.”
If possible, he will now take legal action.
“I will inform myself thoroughly whether there are legal options. I would also like to contact the Justice Committee of the Federal Parliament. If a film inspired by the Dutroux case is possible, then it is the same for the Ronald Janssen case and any other case. Clarification is needed on the position of the victims.”
