The excitement is great in Belgium and beyond since the announcement of the total release of the ex-wife and accomplice of Marc Dutroux, Michelle Martin, aged 62. On August 28, 2022 at midnight, his parole will end, after a probationary period of ten years, AFP revealed. She had already aroused anger when the justice granted her conditional release after this criminal case which undeniably marked the country. Welcomed in a convent in 2012, she had settled in the property of a former judge. She will no longer be subject to judicial follow-up and will be able to travel without authorization.
Sentenced in 2004, Michelle Martin was convicted of having actively participated in the kidnappings by her ex-husband of six young girls in 1995 and 1996, four of whom died. She divorced Marc Dutroux in 2003 – they were married in 1988 and will have three children – sentenced to life imprisonment. The latter, aged 65, continues to serve his sentence in prison and has seen his requests for parole rejected so far.
When the atrocities of Marc Dutroux were revealed, the role of the one who then became his ex-wife never ceased to question. Why did she say nothing when she knew that her husband was committing kidnappings and sequestering his victims? A portrait of The Free tried to provide some answers and in particular the defense of the accused who said that she was a victim of influence: “It’s as if he was drugging me. He didn’t need to be there. He was in every pore of my skin. (…) Over time, I was more and more afraid of it… I no longer had a personality, I no longer thought what I wanted, I no longer felt myself.” Having lost her very young father in a car accident and raised by a mother who would have suffocated her, she explained to the courts that she had made a transfer and considered Marc Dutroux as her “god”.
Marc Dutroux would therefore have deprived her of her humanity, because she left two little girls, Julie and Mélissa, to die of hunger while the man is imprisoned. She provided her justifications to the investigators: “When I arrived in front of the cache, a deep dilemma arose for me, as from the beginning when I learned of the presence of the children in Marcinelle. At the same time, I wanted to open this cache and on the other hand, I refused to open it. I did not want to be complicit in their actions but I also wanted to help these children. I was also afraid of these children. (…) In my mind, the image of lions, ferocious beasts that could attack me had taken place. I know it can be difficult to conceive, but I was completely disconnected from reality.“
Described in complete denial of responsibility in her medical and psychological report at the end of the instruction, Michelle Martin is preparing to resume a normal life. His reception is likely to be delicate in a country forever traumatized by this affair. Another accomplice of Marc Dutroux, Michel Lelièvre, had been beaten up and his apartment ransacked, according to his lawyer, shortly after his release from prison in December 2019 after more than 20 years of imprisonment.