Prosecutors confirmed the information reported by Flemish weekly magazine Humo to Belga news agency on Monday evening, without providing further details.
Marc Dutroux, 69, is one of Belgium’s most notorious criminals. Incarcerated since 1996, he was sentenced in 2004 by a Belgian court to life imprisonment after being found guilty of raping and kidnapping six girls and young women whom he had previously abducted.
Four of them were killed, including Julie and Melissa, whom Dutroux left to starve to death.
According to the Humo report, some 200 photos depicting child sex abuse were discovered in his cell, where he is being held in solitary confinement, during a general search of Nivelles prison in 2024. According to the same source, about half of these photos featured naked children.
The criminal defended himself to his lawyer by explaining that he was the victim of “harassment” by other inmates, who had allegedly smuggled the photos into his cell without his knowledge, according to Humo.
Dutroux’s lawyer, Bruno Dayez, declined to comment.
Mr Dayez, who took over Dutroux’s defense in 2016, wanted to secure his release in 2021, after 25 years in prison. However, his efforts were thwarted by a highly negative expert report issued in 2020. This psychiatric report noted that the criminal should still be considered a psychopath, presenting a high risk of re-offending.
