the basement rooms
Deutroux’s “Horror House” Has Been Demolished

06/08/2022 03:23 am

In the mid-1990s, the Deutreux case caused panic far beyond the borders of Belgium. The then 39-year-old kidnapped a total of six girls and young women in the basement of his basement, only two of them survived. Demolition excavators are now approaching the site of the incident.

In Belgium, the house of girl murderer Marc Dutroux begins to be demolished to make way for a memorial to victims of pedophilia. Officials said the demolition work on the so-called “Horror House” or “House of Horrors”, as it is called in Belgium, should take about ten days.

In the mid-1990s, violent criminals captured, tortured, and raped several girls and young women in the Charleroi building. According to local officials, the redevelopment project, which also includes a garage and the neighboring home of Mark Dutroux, envisages preserving the basement rooms of the “Horror House”. This is in line with the wishes of the families of the victims.

It therefore aims to build a “memorial garden” at the infamous location nationwide by the end of 2023. Dutroux, now 65, was arrested in 1996 and sentenced to life imprisonment by a jury in 2004. The jury found him guilty of the murders of two girls and an accomplice in 1995 and 1996, and of kidnapping and raping a total of six girls and women. He was also convicted for the deaths of two eight-year-old girls who died of starvation while in prison.

Dutroux has been in solitary confinement for more than a quarter century. His ex-wife and partner was released in 2012 after spending 16 years in prison.