2023-09-19 08:35:00
The place is associated with unspeakable crimes that shook an entire country. A memorial garden in tribute to the victims of Marc Dutroux was inaugurated on Tuesday in Charleroi, in place of the house where the latter kidnapped several little girls and teenagers.
The inauguration is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. in the presence of the parents of Julie Lejeune and Mélissa Russo, the two girls raped and kidnapped in this house in 1995-96, before their bodies were found buried in the garden of another property of the criminal .
We ended up calling it “rue de Dutroux”
These parents were associated by the city of Charleroi with the memorial project intended as “a place of calm”. With not a sculpture made of inert material, but a garden of trees and flowers, “living organisms”, explains the Walloon municipality. Murielle has lived in the neighborhood for more than 40 years and is happy that the house has been razed. “This ugly house has been forgotten and it is now a garden, a little corner of paradise.“.
“It feels good to move on“, notes Patricia, local resident. “We ended up calling this street “rue Dutroux”. I was 19 when it happened, I’m 50 now. This white, this garden is symbolic. It will calm the neighborhood“.
Carine, another local resident, is of the same opinion. “It’s much prettier. Passing by this house, we mightn’t stand it anymore, it brought back bad memories“, she says.
At the corner of rue de Philippeville, in the suburb of Marcinelle where the “house of horror” stood, several plant species were planted at the foot of an immaculate white mural on which a child looks a kite twirling in the sky. The place was named “between earth and sky”.
“The gables of the houses which form the corner were covered with white glazed terracotta bricks, so as to catch the light very well to have a brilliant memorial”, explains to AFP Georgios Millis, the architect who led the project.
Cellars preserved from demolition
In June 1995 Julie Lejeune and Mélissa Russo were kidnapped in the Liège region. They were discovered dead in August 1996 in Sars-la-Buissière, in the garden of a property which was also destroyed last summer.
The investigation established that the two girls had been sequestered for many months in the cellar of Marcinelle’s house, where they were raped, before being deprived of care and food to the point of losing their lives.
The modest red brick house, scene of Dutroux’s worst crimes, burst into all Belgian homes when televisions showed on August 15, 1996 the criminal bringing the police there to extract from their hiding place two other kidnapped teenage girls, Laetitia Delhez and Sabine Dardenne.
Sentenced in 2004 to life in prison, Marc Dutroux, who is now 66 years old, was found guilty of having kidnapped, kidnapped and raped six girls and young women in 1995-96. Sabine and Laetitia, found two days following his arrest, are the only two of his victims to have survived.
Arrivals of parents
On site, Gino Russo and Jean-Denis Lejeune, the fathers of Julie and Mélissa, arrived to attend the inauguration. Gino Russo brought a flower ornament with him. He spoke first in front of the assembly. “I want to thank the city and its teams for the way this was done. We wanted to save the cellars and the mayor understood this very well,” he explains. “It was important for us that we protect this cache, where Julie and Mélissa were. It is important for the investigation file.”
Jean-Denis Lejeune also spoke, first thanking the city as well. “Despite everything we have been able to denounce, these cases still happen. Pedophilia, child abuse, that’s what we are fighting and it was important to be able to leave a trace to say that it existed and that “It still exists. Please, those who have power, use it to eradicate this problem,” he implored. “We must save these children, innocent beings.”
dutroux Marcinelle
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