arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

Friday Febuary 01 2002

Nineteen people living in or near the picturesque Ardennes village of Sainte-Ode appeared in the dock, charged with having sex with a 12-year-old girl and other minors. The accused include the girl's father, 37, who ran a bar and offered her to other men for money, and the village doctor, 44, who has four children of his own. There were at least six other victims, including the girl's baby sister. The police have seized dozens of explicit and incriminating photographs from the home that the father shares with his girlfriend, a prostitute, in the shadow of a whitewashed village church. Most of the accused have admitted their guilt, but few villagers want to talk about the dark goings-on. The small courthouse in the nearby town of Neufchâteau was packed as the proceedings opened. The girl's father tried to kick photographers as he was led inside. The case once again focuses attention on Belgium's paedophilia problem. A month ago the police uncovered a Franco-Belgian child sex ring and are still searching for the body of a young North African girl whom they believe was sold to the ring, then murdered. It is the infamous Dutroux case that has really tarnished the nation's reputation. Dutroux was arrested in 1996 on charges of abducting, raping and killing four girls, two of whom starved to death in makeshift dungeons beneath his house. Dutroux was already on parole for abduction and rape. More than five years later he has yet to stand trial and rumours abound of a conspiracy to protect some important personages. In a recent clandestine interview Dutroux claimed that a child sex network still existed in Belgium and that the authorities were ignoring it. Sainte-Ode is a tranquil village of 2,216 inhabitants that sits amid wooded hills on the banks of the Ourthe River in a conservative and traditional corner of southwestern Belgium. There, from the age of 12, the girl known as "C" was allegedly forced to have sex not just with her divorced father, Pascal, but with a string of other men who visited their home, including a local forester, a car mechanic, a telephone technician, a lorry driver, an antiques salesman and the family doctor, who strenuously denies the charges against him. "They did it with the woman or the daughter, whoever was at home," the newspaper La Dernière Heure proclaimed. After two years, the girl's mother went to the police. Her father is also accused of sexually abusing his two other daughters, one just a baby. His girlfriend, Murielle, 30, the prostitute, is accused of aiding and abetting him. The father blames his partner for the sexual perversions that took place beneath his roof, while she claims that he was a violent drinker who forced her to help him. Other accused claim that the couple trapped them. Sainte-Ode is a place where everyone knows everyone. Most of the villagers were aware that Pascal had a conviction for pimping and that Murielle was a prostitute. A small, thin woman, she placed advertisements in local newspapers and used her curtains or a flower pot to signal her availability. The villagers vehemently deny any knowledge of the child sex ring. "The girl was always happy," Jacques Pierre, the mayor, told the Belgian newspaper Het Niewsblad. "When I was a teacher I more than once came across victims of incest. The kids were scarred. With "C" you saw nothing. "The people in the village have nothing to reproach themselves for. Shame is not appropriate here." Laura Hay, a resident, said that everyone was shocked when the scandal first broke. Murielle continues to live in the village, most wives of the accused have stuck by their husbands, and journalists are not welcome. A young Dutchman who has taken over the village bar said: "Nobody says anything here. That's the problem ... In this closed community sex is something that has to be done secretly ... This secretive way of life sooner or later leads to excesses." The trial is expected to last seven weeks.