» CRIME HUNTER: How high up did killer Belgian pedo ring go?

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The horrific crimes committed by a pedophile Belgian serial killer seemed to hit a dead end.

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But even after the convictions of the killer and his wife, Belgians feared a twisted pedophile ring had infiltrated the country’s political, business, judicial and media classes.

The nightmare began on June 24, 1995, when Julie Lejeune and Mélissa Russo, both 8, were snatched off the street while going for a stroll near Liege. The girls’ kidnappers kept them in a dungeon where they were repeatedly sexually assaulted and their nightmare videotaped.

Two months later, in the pre-dawn hours of Aug. 23, 1995, teens An Marchal and Eefje Lambrecks were kidnapped while en route to their holiday home after a night of fun.

Both were kept in chains at the same home where the little girls were being tortured. They would eventually be murdered by being buried alive.

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Pedophile Marc Dutroux was born in 1956 and grew up in the Belgian Congo, the son of teachers. The family eventually returned to Belgium and he became an electrician, married and had two children.

But he was hard-wired for his twisted predilections. Dutroux began kidnapping and raping children in 1985, along with his mistress Michelle Martin, a school teacher and other accomplices.

On Dec. 18, 1985, the trio kidnapped 15-year-old Élisabeth G., 15 in Pont-à-Celles. She was raped and videotaped for the child pornography market.

In early 1986, Dutroux, Martin and a third man were arrested. Dutroux was convicted and sentenced to 13 years in prison while his now wife was handed a five-year sentence.

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Bizarrely, Belgian Justice Minister Melchior Wathelet sprung Dutroux after just five years. A psychiatrist and public prosecutor protested that he was a dangerous monster and shouldn’t be sprung.

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Now a convicted sex offender, when the two eight-year-old girls were kidnapped, he became the prime suspect. Cops did nothing for 14 months, and were too late. All four girls were dead.

One witness told investigators that there were many more kidnappings of young girls, allegedly to order usually for someone else.

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The man suspected of being the brains of the pedophile ring was a Brussels businessman named Jean Michel Nihoul. Dutroux and Nihoul met in prison, where they shared their passions.

In 2002, he boasted to The Guardian that he would never go to trial because of what he knew about some of the country’s most important people. He also denied he was a pedophile.

Survivor Regina Louf told investigators that from the time she was 12, when her parents gave her to a “family friend,” named Tony Van den Bogaert, she would be taken to weekend sex parties and shared. At the same time, Louf and other young girls were filmed having sex with the men.

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“It was highly organized,” she said. “Big business. Blackmail. There was a lot of money involved.”

She told cops in 1996 that regular clients included judges, politicians and bankers. She gave names and addresses, and the names of other child victims. She told them of BDSM, torture and murder.

Nihoul and Dutroux were among the guests.

Detectives began investigating, and then the prosecutor in charge was suddenly taken off the case. The special police team was also disbanded.

Parent Gino Russo said: “It was like spitting on the grave of Julie and Melissa.”

Det. Rudy Hoskens added: “She (Louf) gave us some details that made us think it’s impossible to give without having been there at that place — the way the body was found at that time, and the way she described the person who was killed.”

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Louf had described the nightmarish death of a 15-year-old girl she knew as Chrissie.

“It was a sort of bondage, so her legs and her hands and her throat were connected with the same rope, and so when she moved she strangled herself,” Louf said, adding that Nihoul and Dutroux were present.

The body of Christine Van Hees was discovered in 1984 outside Brussels. A judge who was friends with Nihoul torpedoed the probe.

And then Belgian media outed Louf, describing her as a deranged “fantasist” plagued by false memories. But the media omitted important details: Louf’s parents copped to letting her go with Van den Bogaert, who admitted his role but oddly remains free. Instead, state media targeted the victim.

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Between cops and the media, the narrative shifted that there was no massive conspiracy, just a lone pedophile and his small coterie of fiendish fellow travelers. The victims’ families don’t buy the official version.

Evidence from the houses of horror went untested, and the probe was thin as gruel. No DNA tests were conducted, and any testing was deemed “inconclusive.”

And yet … since 1995, there have been 20 unexplained deaths of potential witnesses connected with Dutroux.

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Dutroux never slowed down until he and Martin were nabbed in August 1996 – kidnapping, torturing and raping young girls until the very end. He was finally sentenced to life in prison.

In 1997, a commission determined that some suspects in the pedo ring, including Dutroux, had been protected, fuelling claims of a cover-up.

Martin was released from prison in 2012, causing outrage in Belgium. But the case itself was effectively buried.

Regina Louf later said: “In Belgium, if you’re a potential witness, you’re either dead, or like me, mad.”

bhunter@postmedia.com

@HunterTOSun

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