The infamous Belgian paedophile Marc Dutroux has gone on strike from his cleaning job in prison after being refused a raise and being told he can no longer work in shorts, according to his lawyer.
The prison in the Walloon city of Nivelles is deliberately making Dutroux’s life difficult and is doing everything to impede his progress, his lawyer Bruno Dayez told Sudpresse in response to the news.
“He requested a small raise because he is picking up the trash of fellow prisoners, which is considered ‘unhealthy work’, but this was denied,” Dayez said.
Difficult working hours were reportedly imposed on him, and he was expected to wait in the cold for hours before starting his work, according to his lawyer. However, the last straw for Dutroux was forbidding him from working in shorts, his lawyer explained.
Dutroux started cleaning the prison's inner courtyard and the sports hall for €4 a day in 2015, when he was taken out of complete isolation.
Now he has stopped working for an unknown length of time, he will only be permitted to leave his cell for a short outing and to go to the inner courtyard.
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Dutroux was arrested in 1996 and sentenced to life in prison in 2004 for the abduction and repeated rape and torture of six teenage girls whom he kept in his cellar, in a case which shocked Belgium and the international community in the 1990s.
He had been eligible for early release since 2013, however when he filed a request to be released with an electronic bracelet that same year, it was rejected by a court, which found he was unlikely to reintegrate into society.
Later, a report by mental health experts released in September 2020 concluded that Dutroux remained a danger to society, describing him as lacking any remorse for his victims.
August this year will mark his 25th year in prison.
Lauren Walker
The Brussels Times
