Dutroux accomplice allowed to spend a night outside jail

In 2004 he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for his part in the kidnapping of two teenage girls from Limburg Province, An Marchal and Eefje Lambrecks and two girls from Wallonia Sabine Dardenne and Laetitia Delhez.

An and Eefje were by Dutroux, while Sabine and Laetitia were freed alive after police raided one of Marc Dutroux’s properties near Charleroi (Hainaut). Both girls had been raped by Dutroux and had spent much of their time locked up in a makeshift dungeon at his house.

With just three years to go before he is due to be released, efforts are being made to prepare Michel Lelièvre for life in what will be a very different world to the one he knew before his arrest in 1996.

He is currently 46 and will be 49 when he has completed his sentence in 2021. Although this was the first time in more than 20 years that he had spent a night outside jail, Michel Lelièvre has already been out on day release several times, for example in order to go and visit his psychologist or to attend a course.