P.S.: Important note from Patriek De Baets about the alleged four babies of X1: "'About those four childbirths, followed by murders, I never believed that', says adjutant De Baets later. 'That she lost at least one child, to me that seems to be certain. What bothers her most, is that that child has faded from history. You noticed during interviews that she had a strong urge to give her lost child - or children - a place in her narrative. That was the most important to her. I did not see this as intentionally lying. It was clear that she had great trouble finding her way in her memories. We became angry about that at some point. She kept mixing up facts with each other of which you could see that they weren't right. And still we had to listen, I thought. We were only at the beginning. I estimated that we, if we could have proceeded, would only have had a clear picture of her past after a year or two. In between we had to verify. And that's what we did, how much we were accused afterwards for not having done that.' It could be a coincidence, but the first verifications of the testimony of X1 were direct hits." (1999, Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck, Annemie Bulte and Douglas De Coninck, 'De X-Dossiers', p. 167)

This girl had been given the pseudonym "Nora de Boodt" in the 1999 book 'The X-Dossiers'

Born in 1968. When investigators approached her, she initially pretended that nothing was going on with her. After investigators went to talk to her a second time two days later, she had undergone a serious transformation and appeared very pale and disturbed. Between her tears she mentioned some things about her father (abused her at age 14) and said that there were "things about which she couldn't speak." She remembered that her father had a photo lab in which she was not allowed and that he liked to mutilate her sister with cigarettes. Briefly testified to the investigators at Neufchateau and was designated the code X7. An investigator claimed she probably was a very valuable witness, but that they never got enough time to work with her (because of the Langlois-Duterme group that was taking over). She was briefly investigated by other investigators of the BOB in Gent, but as usual didn't trust them one bit. In her last two testimonies, Nathalie did confirm that she was the best friend of X1 between the age of 10 and 14, that she knew about X1's sexual relationship with Tony (X1 told her since the age of 12) and some of the abuse, that she knew about the sexual relationship between Tony and the mother of X1, that she had visited the house of X1's grandmother and that it was forbidden for her to visit the the first floor. The investigators noticed that she was very traumatized.

Born in 1968. Daughter of Roland Storme (b. 1933) and Jenny Vannieuwenhuyse (b. 1932). Her father was into child pornography, and porn videos and magazines were strewn all over her parent's house. Even while as young as 4, her mother masturbated in front of her while father strolled around the house naked. Her grandmother, Maria Donche-Vannieuwenhuyse (b. 1910), was into Satanism, wanted to initiate her and was in the possession of Satanic books. The mother and grandmother of Chantal blamed her for their misfortunes. When she was 6, her parents moved to Kustlaan 60 in Knokke. In Knokke she was sent to the villa-hotel of X1's grandmother, who introduced Storme to the abuse network. Chantal confirmed the abuse that X1 underwent and that she underwent the same, albeit less heinous, treatment. She confirmed the abuse took place in mainly two rooms on the first floor (room 7 & 9, as said by X1) and that she was forced not only to have sex with customers, but also with X1. Like X1, she talked about tying each other up before customers came in. Chantal did recall a person with the nickname "Monsieur", but couldn't remember any other names. She also recognized the house of Leopold Lippens, but never went there (PV 150.815, March 20, 1997). Whenever customers (as usual, without luggage) came by who she did not have to satisfy, she had to be quiet and was forbidden to go upstairs to X1. One time, she saw X1 being threatened with a revolver by her (X1's) grandmother. She was a good friend of X1 until X1 was sent back to Gent. When Chantal was confronted with the investigators in late 1996 she burst out in tears, knowing immediately what this was about. Even before the first interview, she handed over a pile of papers and drawings from her youth and from the period in which she was taken up in a mental institution. The pictures included demons with huge penises (with the word 'Satan' sometimes written next to it), naked men and women, scissors and vibrators. In May 1995, she stopped working with the investigators. Her husband hadn't known a whole lot about her background of abuse, and had now ended up in a terrible (verbal) fight with her father. The father admitted that he had brought Chantal a few times to the villa in question, but denied knowing what happened there. Then he said that these old histories weren't worth remembering and it might be better for his daughter to be taken up in a mental institution again. Several days after this discussion Chantal attempted suicide by taking an overdose of medicines, something which she had tried four times before in the past several years. As a result, she was taken up in a mental institution on May 27. When the father was interrogated he claimed this whole event was the fault of examining magistrate Connerotte.

X3 was severely abused at home from age 3 to age 12, together with her sister. Her father and his friends would play cards, and whoever won that evening could pick one of his daughters and do with her whatever he pleased. The doctor, one of her abusers, would stitch her up if necessary, for example when one of the participants had decided to cut X3's stomach open. When she was 7 or 8 years old one of the participants partially removed her clitoris. After the age of 12 she was introduced to the network. She was placed in a bar and forced to became a prostitute. She also had to find and initiate other children into the network. At this point, she was regularly drugged and taken to parties in different villas, where usually a number of influential people had gathered. At one of these parties she had witnessed how the genitals of a young boy were cut off, how he was killed and ritually buried. Her father or Charly De Pauw (a buddy of Paul Vanden Boeynants) usually brought her. Charly would come by in a pink American car with a white roof. PV 151.829, June 2, 1997: "The car stopped on a parterre before the house. [It] was surrounded by a park. Two supervisors were present: Ralf and Walter. The children were taken to a tower made of natural stone and with a wooden door... an underground [corridor] left from the turret toward the cellars... without light... going downward. In the cellars there were cells where the children were locked up, awaiting their turn. There were also some cells for the dogs (dobermans). The passageway gave way to a room of spectacle. In the tower: dead children's bodies in various stages of decomposition (sometimes dismembered and/or missing body parts) and carcasses of dogs. Spectators: always the same but difficult to identify - about fifty. She recognized the regent Charles, King Baudouin and King Albert, and two others that she calls Charly [De Pauw] and Polo [Paul Vanden Boeynants]. She thinks to have recognized Willy Claes and doctor Vanden Eynde. The dogs listen to Ralf and Walter. The addicted dogs are excited. Spectacles = orgies, putting to death children and dogs. The spectacle room has a strong odor of excrements of dogs. Dogs can roam free in the garden... Gilles (12 years old??) was castrated by Polo. The other children have to drink the blood... Girls are slashed with razor blades. The lips of the vagina of X3 have partially been cut and were given to eat to the dogs... A girl's [large] vulva was cut into slices and fed to the dogs..." More in PV 151.829, June 2, 1997: "A hunt is prepared by Charly and Polo. Present: Charles-Ferdinand Nothomb. This is at another place. Big white house with [at least one additional floor] and stables. The park has a round basin and a fountain coming out of a statue. The children were released naked and when caught, they were raped. The hunt ended with tortures in the spectacle room... Virginity of a girl of 7-9 years taken by a dog. A product that excited [the dog] was placed on the girl's vagina. The other children had to lick the blood... A baby devoured by the dogs... Childbirth by a teenager through a caesarean section. Baby pulled out of the stomach and given to the dogs by Polo [Paul Vanden Boeynants]. She saw the dismembered mother again in the exposition of the dead... She has to eat the human flesh cut from the bodies. She has to eat pieces of children (fingers) served in gelatin. Good taste - slightly sugary. It provoked an enormous sensation of hunger and thirst. Drinking blood relieved the sensation of thirst... She speaks of another murder that she committed on a girl of 3-5 years under the threat that it would be her brother who would be killed. She opened up the girl from the vagina to the breastbone with a knife. She gave the internal organs to the dog. Someone cut off the head. The child was devoured by the dogs... Murder of a young teenage woman who was opened up by Vanden Eynde... The baby shouted in the mother's stomach. She resewed the stomach with the baby inside... She also has to eat from the excrements of dogs... She has to cut off the vulva of a female dog named Rita." More in PV 151.829, June 2, 1997: "Luxurious house with a surrounding wall and gate... non illuminated twisting path. There were some stables. Parterre with flowers. Hall of entry = cream-colored and blue tiles - red carpeting. Walls made of marble with a teenage picture of [later king] Baudouin on it. She spent a whole night with Baudouin - fellatio and sodomy. Presence of maid... In this house there were many servants... She remembers one evening when she had been smeared with cream before being brought to the table on a tray. She had been licked off and raped... At the end of another evening a child... had been castrated. The other children that were present buried the boy in a flowerbed. She remembers a child who had been decapitated, then cut and fried before being eaten. She remembers children who hung on hooks in the kitchen. A certain Solange [a female name] has been enucleated [what exactly?] with a spoon by her and an old lady." In contrast to X1, X2 and Nathalie W., X3 was treated with respect and that seems to have been the reason that she somehow kept her trust in the Neufchateau cell. However, a lot of what she said was never written down and there has never been the slightest investigation into the claims she made.

X1 identified Nathalie W. (PV 150.521) as someone present at the sexclub Les Atrebates in the early 1980s while Nathalie W. correctly identified the pimp of X1 as "Anthony" and as a friend of Nihoul (PV 150.521); X1 identified the father of Nathalie W. (PV 150.521); X4 identified Nathalie W. (PV 150.521: "PV 150.521: "She [Nathalie W.] is recognized by X1 and X4... X4 states that [Nathalie] Waet. has the same age as her except for 3 months (correct)") while Nathalie W. identified the mother (Simone) and a sister of X4 by name (PV 150.521)

Also spelled "Waterschoot". Born on June 16, 1965. With support from her therapist she gave her first testimony to the police in February 1996, six months before the Dutroux affair. The officer who interviewed her at some point stated, "I can't write this down", which resulted in Nathalie walking out of his office without signing anything. In July 1996, after two police officers, Joël Gerard and Theo Vandyck, incidentally met with Nathalie's therapist, she was interviewed again. Nathalie began telling how she was first raped by her father, Andre (born March 7, 1937), when she was six. Her father, just as many others who raped her, was a member of the Rotary Club (of Waterloo in his case; when the investigators later approached the Rotary of Waterloo, its president refused to give them a membership list). Nathalie's father began sending her to family and friends of his, who regularly organized child abuse parties at their villas in the region of Waterloo. She told the interviewers that when she was 10 years old her father delivered her to Vincent, aka Prince Alexandre de Merode, in Spain. Vincent, who drove in a Jaguar (inspectors later identified the car as a Jaguar XJ6, model 1968. (PV 150.249)), then took her to parties at castles in central Belgium. She became pregnant three times and in all cases the baby was aborted. In early September 1996, Nathalie first spoke about the private sex club Les Atrebates in Etterbeek, which she said was a regular meeting place of her abusers. She'd seen a number of other girls there. One of the individuals involved she called "Mich", the name X1 reserved for Michel Nihoul (and also placed at Les Atrebates and the Dolo). 1999, 'the X-Dossiers', p. 310: "It was Joël who called me with the question if 'Mich' was Nihoul. Yes, I said. I had immediately recognized him on tv. I didn't see him as the most important person. He was there in the period of the Atrebatenstraat [Les Atrebates], when I was 15 or 16. That was all." Said that Nihoul raped her at least 3 times in the early 1980s. Didn't recognize X1 from pictures, but did recognize X1's mother and X1's pimp as "Anthony" (which is correct). She claimed Anthony was a friend of Nihoul, which has also been reported by X1. X1 and X4 recognized Nathalie W. as a victim of the network. X1 recognized the father of Nathalie. Nathalie W. identified the mother (Simone) and a sister of X4 by name (PV 150.521). Pointed out The Dolo and a number of villas and other locations where she said she had been abused. Reported having seen Paul Vanden Boeynants at the Dolo with some women. In the following weeks Nathalie began to complain about how she was threatened by anonymous phone calls and said that the network was following every step of the investigation. In mid-October 1996, Nathalie claimed to have been beaten up by a person she recognized as Jean-Louis Delamotte (picked from photos shown to her), a business associate of Michel Nihoul. Soon thereafter the investigators noticed a "V" that had been carved in her arm. According to her, it was a present from Vincent, who had stopped by to advise her to pull out of the investigation. Soon thereafter, Nathalie claimed that a green car tried to force her from the road. For a brief moment, this report is linked to a complaint of prosecutor Anne Thilly, who claimed to have been followed by a green car in October 1996. In the mean time, Marie France Botte (a rather peculiar woman), for a while Nathalie's chief financial supporter, was beaten up in front of her house by a person who then tried to strangle her. A note from January 18, 1997 of Theo Vandyck reads: "[Delamotte] strongly resembles the facial composite of the aggressor of Marie-France Botte... Delamotte knew Nihoul... Delamotte was in contact with a person named Antoine [almost certainly the pimp of X1], a friend of Nihoul." The details Nathalie gave about the network turned out to be compatible with information the police already had. Theo Vandyck, her early interviewer and the only person she really trusted, said: "You needed to have patience with her, but when you see all that she could tell us in the early stage of the investigation, then you know: she knows the milieu that we were so interested at the time through and through." As with X1, Nathalie quite often either went hysterical or fell completely silent. In fact, she turned out to be even less ready to be interviewed (and certainly not interrogated) than X1. From January 16 to January 30, 1997, Nathalie was hypnotized three times in an effort to retrieve more detailed memories (and probably to make it through them without having to be restrained again). In the third session she remembered an "old lady with a walking stick" who was a close associate of her prince. She remembered the name of this lady as "Bérénice d'Aurschot". She described how she was 14 years old (1979) when she was first brought to "Maison de d'Aurschot". A description of the place included: "green shutters, gravel, white, no etage, near to a chateau". A number of visits were in December and January, others in July and September. At least one of the meetings took place during full moon. In response to the question to write down what comes back to her when she moves around the castle (in her mind), she made the notes (PV 150.035, January 30, 1997): ""Murder-around... In a circle around fire - have some candles - everybody is standing except the baby and the sheep - the baby cries - he cannot cry - he cannot breathe because he is impure - and it is a boy." She describes the murder of the baby and how his blood is mixed with that of the slaughtered sheep - Then they burn the baby and the sheep, and everybody is having sex with each other - the monster has left. They tear out the heart of the baby. She describes some signs that she noticed (cross - stars)." Prince Alexandre de Merode and at least a dozen others were present, including her father. The name she mentioned appears to be the d'Arschot Schoonhoven family (counts), although a "Berenice" is hard to find (says nothing at this points). This family has historically been closely associated with families like De Croy, Chimay, De Ligne, and a number of others, including Windisch-Gratz and the Belgian royals. Interestingly, anno 2006, Count Guillaume d'Arschot Schoonhoven is a director of Compagnie du Zoute in Knokke, together with Counts Maurice, Leopold, and Paul Lippens and Nadine Lippens. This family is one of the most notorious among children who are part of the abuse network. Apparently, when Nathalie was talking about "Maison de d'Aurschot" she meant Chateau d'Ohain, just south-east of Brussels (PV 150.674: "Places and facts... Chateau de Lasnes. 1979-94." PV 150.729: "Chateau de Lasnes = chateau de Ohain". Talks about a ceremony that took place there in which a child was killed). Interestingly, within several miles of Chateau d'Ohain one can also find Chateau de la Hulpe on Domaine Solvay and Domaine d'Argenteuil of the late King Leopold III and Princess Liliane de Rethy, which all appear in the Dutroux file. Additionally, the (former?) gamekeeper and woodsman of Chateau Genval (nearby very luxurious Hotel) and/or La Hulpe was named a violent paedophile in 1994. At some point Nathalie also mentioned Castle Dongelberg as a place of abuse (owned by Opus Dei). X2 also claimed that children had been abused at Dongelberg, while in other reports the castle is mentioned as a place where conspirators had organized several meetings in the 1970s and 1980s when they attempted to overthrow the Belgian state. Theo Vandyck, the only inspector Nathalie completely trusted, suffered a stroke one or two days after Nathalie's third hypnotic regression (about the satanic ritual). As a result Vandyck and Gerard were replaced by Philippe Pourbaix and Baudouin Dernicourt, two "re-readers" who were working with Commandant Duterme to remove De Baets from the X1 interviews and to subsequently "discredit" X1. These new interviewers/interrogators made it absolutely clear that they didn't believe a word of what Nathalie was saying. Their extreme scepticism, combined with the way they interrogated (instead of interviewing and trying to confirm), completely sent Nathalie off the deep end. On at least two occasions she invented events and went through some personal suffering to make it appear real (although in the first case it seems quite obvious that she was trying to make a statement). At some point, she also confused the names of her two most important abusers, besides her father (although that's almost certainly a result of the oppressive and abusive interrogation techniques used by the new interrogators, not the least because the de Merode family has also been named by other victims). On March 17, 1997 she decided to quit. The biggest problem all along with Nathalie was that she really was a mythomaniac to some extent (almost certainly a result of her extreme abuse), especially when she wasn't taken serious. To her first interviewers she would sometimes state that what she told them a minute ago was not accurate. However, the really serious inventing seems to have only begun after the new interviewers arrived on the scene. Marc Reisinger, the psychologist who later examined X1 and came to support her 100%, said that Nathalie's testimony could not be trusted, because she was suffering from pathomimie, a tendency to inflict physical harm to one's own body in order to play a victim. This did not mean she was not a victim of very severe child abuse, which she obviously was, but a detailed testimony to be used in court could not be considered reliable. When Nathalie's family was contacted, her mother said that Nathalie was a dangerous person who tried to "destroy" people she didn't like. According to her mother, grandmother, brothers and ex-boyfriend, Nathalie's accusations against her father were "unthinkable" and a "disgrace" to her family (not that strange considering the abuse was taking place within the family). The father and his present wife, who resided in Spain, were not questioned. Supposedly, his present wife had said to Nathalie that her father "had started again". The Spanish police reported to their Belgian counterpart that Nathalie's father "appears to be protected". Cecile Z., a police officer who lived together with Nathalie W., wrote: "Pourbaix just kept repeating that everything Nathalie said had been investigated and that nothing checked out... He suggested to me that I go through the stuff of Nathalie and do my own investigation that way... [I know hard evidence is necessary], but claiming, like Pourbaix did, that Nathalie is fantasist, a psychopath, a mythomaniac and the biggest manipulator in the world, that is way out of line. Believe me, these are not interpretations, these are words I literally heard." Ludmilla, a psychologist at Botte's foundation, concurred: "I think this was a set up and that we were dealing with disinformation, which not only was meant to destabilize the victim, but also to discredit her in her own environment." In March, after Nathalie had ceased cooperation with the new interviewers, Pourbaix also contacted the neighbor of Nathalie and Cecile, warning her that she shouldn't leave her children around Nathalie. The neighbor recorded one of the phone calls with Pourbaix and gave it to Nathalie, who in turn confronted Pourbaix with it. The result was that Nathalie's house was searched, the tape confiscated and the neighbor threatened with possible legal steps for having violated secrecy agreements. In early April 1997, Duterme began to worry about Nathalie telling everything she knew to family, friends and reporters. Within two weeks, however, the media began a full scale attack on Nathalie instead. Theo Vandyck, the early interviewer who she had trusted, had recovered enough from his stroke to find out what was happening at Neufchateau. It turned out that Pourbaix and his colleagues had contacted the media in an effort to discredit Nathalie. When Vandyck pointed out to Pourbaix that he risked being prosecuted for violating official secrets, he was told that Duterme and Col. Brabant of the BOB had given their full support for the media campaign. Vandyck's inquiries were answered with a brief letter from Langlois telling him to leave the Nathalie W. case alone. According to Vandyck, Pourbaix called Nathalie a "whore" who was manipulating the whole Dutroux investigation. Pourbaix for some reason had become so upset with Nathalie that he began to use her picture at the shooting range for target practice. Nathalie's dossier was closed on April 25, 1997. She finally found job in mid-1998, but within days the gendarmerie stopped by informing her that she needed to be interrogated for something pertaining to the Dutroux-case. In the past she had always been contacted personally in a very discreet manner, either by mail, by phone or a pager she always carried with her. This unnecessary move on part of the gendarmerie resulted in the loss of her job. Marie-France Botte, the person who initially supported Nathalie, had to close the doors of her foundation around this same time. In late 1998, Botte attempted to commit suicide, which failed.

During his interviews in prison, Raemaekers claimed he had met Rene Bats, an Army general who liked boys and was introduced to him by Jean-Paul Dumont (also accused of being a major child abuser), several times at Cercle des Nations and how this person was financially backed by Patrick de Meeus d'Argenteuil. In PV 116.160, that same day, Raemaekers claimed that in 1992 and 1993 he frequently met with Renaud Coppieters 't Wallant (b. 1935), who was a member of the PSC, Cercle des Nations, the Lion's Club and the Rotary. According to Raemaekers, Wallant frequently visited Patrick de Meeus d'Argenteuil. Wallant had a foundation in Congo (Zaire) and owned an import-export business. According to Raemaekers, Wallant was a pedophile who liked boys and who knew both Bats and Dumont.

Yann was the born in Congo, the former Belgian colony of Zaire, on May 23, 1962. He was the son of Count Yves de Meeus d'Argenteuil, allegedly once an ambassador, and Countess Colette de Lannoy. He had three sisters and a brother, Brieuc (b. 1961). These days Brieuc is the managing director of Flightcare Belgium NV, founded in 2002. Yann de Meeus was arrested twice in 1988 at the orders of Benoit Dejemeppe, the prosecutor of the king in Brussels. After his first arrest, involving auditory hallucinations, Yann was put on a alcohol rehabilitation program under doctors Toussaint and Hobins, starting on May 8, 1988. The second time he was arrested for allegedly having raped two children, one aged 10, the other 14. Although he was not officially charged, he was held for a while in the Foret prison in Brussels where he himself was abused by inmates. Later in 1988, Dejemeppe succeeded in locking him up for being a "mystical Catholic gone delirious". Apparently got out in 1990 and tried to become a commercial pilot in Kenya. Soon returned to Brussels where his mental state rapidly plummeted. He had to return to mental institutions. Yann tried to get a release from his mental institution in early 1999, but this failed. Apparently, on September 12, 1999, Yann sent a list of names of people he accused of being involved in trafficking children and drugs to the Belgian Comite P., the French Quai d'Orsay and the DEA. Although his list does not overlap with names mentioned in the X-dossiers, many people on his list are very close associates of those that have been accused in the X-dossiers. Yann committed suicide on November 11, 2000. http://www.demeeus.org/evenements.htm, deaths: "2000 - Yann of Meeûs of Argenteuil (son of Yves), reserve Lieutenant to the 2nd Regiment of the Ardennes Hunters, died in Grez-Doiceau November 11".

Picture recognized by X1 in PV 116.257, October 28, 1996.

Born in 1966. Lived in Gent. Daughter of businessman Jacques Dubrulle. Jacques Dubrulle was manager of Daska Films, administrator of Decatron NV (of the Bert family, accused of child abuse), and chairman and patron of the International Film Festival of Flanders. Veronique died, officially from cancer, on September 4, 1983. Her death certificate was written and signed by Dr. Luc De Schrijver, a neuropathist, and Dr. Luc De Waele, a internationally esteemed neurosurgeon.

In late 1996, X1 picked Veronique from a collection of pictures and said that this girl had been murdered. The murder took place when she was "not yet 14, I think". In 1983, X1 was either 13 or 14. X1 described how Veronique was regularly brought to child abuse parties. Nihoul, Bouty, Tony, Emile Dellaert, Michel Vander Elst and a member of the Bert family had been present at her murder. She was tortured with a knife for a while before finally being killed. X1 also claimed that she had ended up in bed with De Schrijver and that De Waele was more interested in having sex with 7-8 year old girls. Unfortunately, De Baets and team apparently had not gotten around (yet?) to let X1 identify these men from a collection of pictures. The dossier was already closed in early 1997 by the District Attorney's office in Gent. Veronique's body was never dug up, as Aime Bille had immediately requested. Shortly after the press first mentioned the X-dossiers in January 1997, detectives found out that Tony, X1's former pimp, called up Jacques Dubrulle three times. Further research by the authors of the 1999 book 'The X-dossiers' indicated that both men were good friends. According to X1, in contrast to Veronique's father, De Schrijver and De Waele were not close associates of Tony, nor the group that organized hunts on children. September 1998, Dr. Marc Reisinger in 'Zwijgen is voor daders - De getuigenis van X1', p. 307: "The investigators wanted to exhume the body and asked permission for access to the medical file. The District Attorney's office in Gent refused any cooperation. Surprisingly enough, the parents of Veronique did not step into the limelight with the question to start an investigation, they also did not defend themselves against accusations in the press that shed light on the case in January 1998."

Born in 1996. Daughter of Emile Dellaert, a person investigated in 1965 and 1977 on suspicions of incest and sex with an under aged girl. Carine disappeared on August 30, 1982. It took a week before her father reported her missing, which immediately made him a suspect. A criminal investigation against Emiel Dellaert was opened in December 1983. Carine's body was found in an abandoned cesspit in Gent on September 24, 1985. January 8, 1998, De Morgen: "The body was in foetal position, bound with white electric wire, the feet and hands tied. "The body was in a very advanced state of decomposition," says another policeman. "We had to take the skeleton to the lab in fragments." Not much remained of the young girl’s clothes. A gold ankle chain and a pearl necklace had been preserved. The jewelry set off a signal in the mind of the Ghent deputy public prosecutor Nicole De Rouck. She immediately thought of Carine Dellaert." In January 1986, after spending a total of two months in jail, Emiel Dellaert was released due to a lack of evidence. In 1989, he was considered free of all suspicions and his dossier was closed.

X1 privately wrote about "Flo" (Clo) in her manuscripts of the early 1990s. Although Clo didn't die in these texts (nobody did for psychological reasons), X1 did already mention that Clo gave birth to a child in mid 1983. In the aftermath of the Dutroux affair, X1 identified her Clo from two pictures, P4 and P7, in which Carine Dellaert had two entirely different looks. This was a girl to whom she had been introduced in late 1981 and was to become her "sister". Tony figured people would be asking less questions if he was seen with two young girls instead of one. Clo, three years older than Regina (correctly pointed out), became one of the few good friends of Regina, but was brutally murdered somewhere "between June and December 1983". After Clo disappeared on August 30, 1982, X1 still occasionally saw Clo at abuse parties, and always with the same older person. She was not allowed to go near her and was informed by Tony that Clo had become an "angel" (meaning that she would die) and had ended up in the end circuit. The only reason Clo was kept alive for several more months was because she was pregnant, and many customers liked pregnant girls. At one point in 1983, X1 was picked up from school by Tony and taken to a house in the region of Gent. She found Clo there, lying on a bed. Clo was trying to deliver a baby, but in the process was raped and tortured and as a result had lost a lot of blood. X1 in PV 116.018, October 25, 1996: "This happened in a house in Ghent. Clo was there, too... They tortured her with knives and scissors. Someone broke a bottle and rubbed the fragments into her vagina. Then they cut her in various places with razor-blades." 1998, Regina Louf, 'Zwijgen is voor daders - De getuigenis van X1', p. 109-111: "Several abusers from the core group got a kick out of pregnant girls. Tony had so much demand for pregnant girls that he forbid me to take the pill... I sat hours with her [Clo], I held her awake, helped her to get through the contractions. But it went slow. In between they did what they had done to me. They came to abuse her, torture her with objects. Clo had a hard time dealing with pain. She screamed in agony and I was forced to hold her and keep her quiet. They said that they would hurt her even more if I would not succeed in keeping her quiet. Crying, begging for mercy, I held her, pressing my hand on her mouth. The more she cried, the more ruthless they became. After what seemed like an eternity they stopped and left us alone again. Clo couldn't go on anymore. She continually floated between waking and sleeping, and the baby wouldn't come. I gather all my courage and went to the living room... 'Tony, Clo is really sick. She needs a doctor.' He hits me, angry that I dared to interrupt him during a pleasant conversation, and kicks me back into the room. 'You better make sure this is over soon, bitch. Or I'll cut it out.'... I walk back to the bed. Clo is pale with blue lips and rings beneath her eyes... I press the baby out of her stomach and tell her it's done... Clo doesn't wake up anymore... Tony touches me and wants to pull me off the bed... I become hysterical and scream that I have to hold Clo, punch and kick to everything that moves... Two men hold me, press me in a corner of the hallway, kick me a few times, until I keep lying down, crying. Now that I've given up Tony begins to yell again. 'Dare to stand up, bitch, you just dare! It is your fault, you hear me! You let Clo die, so don't try to get up, because I will kill you!" He kicked me in my side like a wild beast. 'Come on, give me a reason to kill you.'" Clo died and her baby was taken away. Present in that house were Michel Nihoul, Annie Bouty, Tony, Leopold Lippens, Michel Vander Elst and two other persons. The deputy police commissioner of Knokke joined this group soon afterwards in a Chinese restaurant. They went to the grandmother of X1 where another rape and torture session was organized in which the deputy police commissioner participated. XI couldn't say much more about Clo, except that "she had an ankle bracelet... a chainlet." (PV 102.688, May 31, 1997 (BOB in Gent)), which was correct as this was found on Clo's body during the 1985 autopsy. X1's testimony that Clo was in the final stages of a pregnancy also seems confirmed. The 1985 autopsy report noted that at the height of Clo's pelvis a "small piece of soft wood-like tissue (laminaria tent)" was found. Laminaria tents are thin pieces of sterile seaweed that are put into the cervix. They slowly open up the cervix to make it easier and more comfortable to give childbirth. Laminaria tents can also be used during abortion procedures. X1 remembered the street at which Clo's school was located at the time. January 8, 1998, De Morgen: "Thanks to research carried out at "Clo's" school, the BSR investigators managed to guess who she was. After that, BSR officers Patriek De Baets and Philippe Hupez showed XI a series of class photos from the year 1981-82. XI not only pointed to the photos of Carine Dellaert, but also to another photo. According to XI, this was V. (she gave her first name). She added: "They killed her, too. Clo told me that she was called V.... After further research, the investigators not only came across the old file on the murder of Carine Dellaert, but also information concerning the second young girl. She was, in fact, called V., and had died in the middle of 1983 in Ghent. Regarding the list of people present according to XI, some of the details were remarkable. As well as Michel Nihoul and a woman who was arrested in the Dutroux case [Annie Bouty], XI named her procurer T. [Tony], the lawyer [Michel Vander Elst] and the burgomaster mentioned above[Leopold Lippens], and a businessman from western Flanders and his son. XI could not establish any links between all these people, except the fact that she had met them on various occasions at orgies. The investigators carried out research which showed that all the people present had professional links of one sort or another, links that were not apparent at first sight. The name of the man she indicated as Clo's "procurer" was also remarkable. He had already appeared as a suspect in the old file at the Ghent Public prosecutor’s department. The man was known to the police for a series of sexual crimes." In early 1997, the BOB in Gent, headed by prosecutor of the king Jean Soenen, took over the investigation of the X1-Clo link and ceased all cooperation with De Baets and his team. X1 would work with this BOB division on a number of occasions, but soon found them the most intimidating of all. The BOB in Gent went to interview 28 former classmates of Carine Dellaert. The first question they asked was if any of these classmates could remember if Carine had ever been called "Flo" or "Clo". The answer was no, because Carine was primarily known under this name in the network. However: 1998, Regina Louf, 'Zwijgen is voor daders - De getuigenis van X1', p. 288: "Several days later I came to know that Clo - who, according to the District Attorney's office in Gent maybe never existed and certainly was not Carine - also had classmates who called her Clo. One of them confirms that only very few people knew her under that name, and that she believed me the minute she heard me talk about 'Clo'. Also the description I gave of her was correct. Months later an older woman came to me, who confirmed that another victim I had named had indeed died under suspicious circumstances." The next question the investigators asked was if anyone could remember if Carine ever recruited girls to participate in sex orgies. This was followed by an obvious denial by everyone. 1999, Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck, Annemie Bulté, and Douglas De Coninck, 'De X-dossiers', p. 501-502: "Let's call her Fanny V. It took us two phone calls to find her. Few have known Carine Dellaert as well as she did. They were classmates in the school years 1977-78 and 1978-79 in the town school Gezusters Loveling in the Van Hulthemstraat in Gent [but she was never interviewed by the BOB in Gent]. 'We became friends in sixth grade', Fanny says. 'I was eleven or twelve then, Carine thirteen, I believe. What I can tell you dates from that period.' Fanny has to chuckle when she hears about the conclusions of the District Attorney's office in Gent. In the official reports it is reported that her friend was a hardworking pupil which never had any troubles at home. 'In any case she was a year older than the rest of the class', Fanny says. 'She already had failed one of the lower classes. I looked up to her a lot. I was still a child, she a real woman. She was physically and mentally so much stronger than we. When my mother heard that she had become my best friend, she went to complain about that with the school's management. Because I had said to my mother that Carine regularly had sex with her father and also with other men. 'No, Carine was not happy, not at all. On the playground we sometimes sat silently next to each other the whole time. I felt she was suffering immensely under the situation. She wanted to run away from home, she often spoke about that: "Run away, far away from here." 'She told me that she had to sleep with many men... As far as Fanny remembered, Carine Dellaert told her that this primarily happened at her home. I was still a child, didn't understand anything and didn't ask more questions. What I do remember is that her mother knew nothing about this. I used to ask that all the time: and how about your mother, what does she think? She's always gone, she said...' After the lower school, in 1979, Fanny V. lost contact with Carine Dellaert. 'I never saw her again.' She [Fanny] went to another school and got to know other people there. One of them - we are not making this up - was Regina Louf. 'Regina talked to almost no one', Fanny continues. 'If Regina and Carine knew each other? To me that seems perfectly possible. Regina also had her secret, she was very introvert. If Regina and Carine knew each other through such a circuit it would have been hard for me to find out. At school you only saw the facade. I thought that you could compare them, their attitudes. I have bought the book of Regina, but I'm afraid to read it. I have wanted to start a few times, but there are things in there... it hurts me too much.'" 1999, 'De X-dossiers', p. 503: "The first childhood friend of Regina Louf who is interviewed in the summer of 1997 is Kristelle M. [PV 103.011, September 1, 1997, BOB Gent, officer Jan Vincent]. She was in the same class in the years 1983-84 and 1984-85... '[Regina] sometimes disappeared from school in the afternoon', Kristelle remembered. If it is true what this woman says, then the re-readers of the dossier Van Hees can fold a boat from the absence register that they saw as 'proof' that Regina Louf impossibly could have been in Brussels in the early evening of February 13, 1984. What Kristelle M. remembered above all, is that she continually talked about sex. She told how she had a relationship with 'an older man'. According to M., the whole class assumed that she was lying. Not Kristelle M. She had seen with her own eyes how this 'older man' picked up Regina after school. And there was something else: Regina at some point told her that she was pregnant of that older man. Kristelle M. also knew that Regina often spoke about a 'female friend with whom she could amuse herself and with whom she often went out in the Boudewijnstraat'. She didn't remember the name of the friend anymore, 'but it could have been Christine, Carine, Caroline or Claudine'. Kristelle M. could also tell that Regina, as a kid of 14, drank alcohol and one morning arrived in class and 'smelled of liquor'. One time she arrived at school with a clearly visible bruise..." The Gent BOB produced a short list of minor (alleged and certain) mistakes in X1's testimony and ignored as much as possible elements that seemed to be accurate. On September 18, 1997, the Gent BOB inspectors went to the home X1 described as the place where Clo had been murdered. Rudy Hoskens and Stephane Liesenborg of De Baets' team had found the house a year before through descriptions given by X1. They concluded that it perfectly matched the description of X1. The only thing they couldn't find was a small stone wall. 1999, Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck, Annemie Bulte and Douglas De Coninck, 'The X-Dossiers', 493-494: "In his official report first sergeant Jan Vincent of the BOB Gent extensively mentions the small wall that clearly isn't there. That it's about a bungalow surrounded by a garden, that he has to acknowledge. X1 also talked about 'some sort of artificial pond, but not a natural pond, a fairly square thing'. That pond, she noted, went around the bungalow like a moat. About the house she said: 'Yes, such a square thing, a kind of brick. With a small fountain.' Vincent has to admit that the pond is there, but then - we cite literally: 'This moat has more of a natural than an artificial look. The water certainly is not a square thing and bricks or a fountain are nowhere to be found.' Strange is that. One inspector says white, the other one says black. What do we do then? We went to take a look ourselves, of course. What turns out? The house in Waarschoot is mostly surrounded by a pond which is as square as square can be. Because of the sprouting of trees and bushes, bumps can be found in the straight line that was intended during construction, but if you keep in mind that X1 said that she had been here in 1983, it is hard not to conclude that the moat then must have formed a perfect square. The house, as any passer-by can determine, certainly has been built with bricks. And what is that there in middle of the garden, right in front of the front door? A fountain! At least a 3 feet high fountain. It might not be a real fountain - no water is coming out - but a white garden sculpture that can even be seen from 100 yards away can impossibly be seen as something else than a fountain." February 25, 2004, Herwig Lerouge and Vinciane Convens, Solidaire, interview with Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck: "We were sued several times. Gendarme officer Vincent of the CBO in Gent was one of them. He for instance allowed that an investigation that had been opened in response to testimonies of Regina Louf, was closed. According to him, the house that Regina Louf described did not match at all the house he had visited himself. Regina described an artificial pond and he said it was a natural pond and that the description of Regina therefore was not accurate. In the end, the court decided in our favor and said that our investigation was better than his. That is written black on white. We proved that the house Regina Louf described indeed matches the house that he visited. We even found back the plans for the construction of the artificial pond." It is known that the house mentioned by X1 in the early 1990s was a brothel, the International Club. It was owned and inhabited by Gustaaf Derdijn. In the early 1980s, Derdijn also was the owner of the Co-Cli-Co, a night club to which X1 claimed to have been brought by her pimp, Tony, to be prostituted. Clo also had some customers here. The Co-Cli-Co club appeared in Tony's diary. When the Co-Cli-Co went bankrupt in 1984, one of its largest creditors was Le Cinema Publicitaire, a videostore owned by Tony. The largest creditor of Co-Cli-Co, and it's real owner, was the firm All-Meat, in which Dendijn was a partner together with the Dutch porn dealer Gerard Cok *. Cok, together with his close business associate Charles Geerts **, are major players in the worldwide porn industry. Both have continually been linked to criminal practices, with especially Geerts having been tied to the Dutch mafia. Both Cok and Geerts ran the porn company Scala, which on several occasions was linked to trade in child pornography, but virtually exclusively through Geerts.

On April 24, 1998, the day after X1 had been confronted with her former pimp Tony, who confessed to have had sex with her from the age of 12, X1 was confronted with Emile Dellaert, the father of Clo (Carine). X1 had already mentioned that Clo was sold to the abuse network by her father. At the time of Clo's disappearance, Emile had also been suspected by the police and his ex-wife for being involved for a whole number reasons. For example, they were asking themselves why he waited a week to contact the police, why he claimed that Clo had ran away even though she hadn't taken anything with her, why he made "sensual" photos of his daughter, why Clo was often heard screaming in the weeks before her disappearance, why she had become so extremely afraid of the woods all of a sudden (she was a member of the scouts), or why witnesses at the scouting club claimed that father and daughter were acting more like a couple in love. It's also interesting to note that Emile had already been investigated for accusations of incest in 1977, next to suspicions against him that he had an affair with an under aged girl in the Netherlands in 1965. But to the Gent-based BOB officers and examining magistrate Jean Soenen this seemingly all didn't matter. Even though X1 had refused to cooperate anymore by this time, Emile Dellaert's word apparently was considered infinitely more reliable.

* Gerard Cok . Left the Slavenburg Bank in 1981 to work with porn boss Charles Geerts, who has been accused on a number of occasions of being a major child pornography dealer. Sentenced to one year in jail in Belgium in 1984 for financial fraud. Partner in the firm All-Meat in 1984, which was the major investor in the Co-Cli-Co night club, in turn closely tied to the child abuse network of X1 and her pimp Tony. Gustaaf Derdijn, the official owner of the Co-Cli-Co and the owner of a house in which allegedly a girl had once been tortured to death, was another partner in All-Meat. Investigated in 1991 on suspicions of involvement in financial fraud and the mafia. Acquitted. Investigated in 1993 for financing a drug operation. Acquitted. In June 1994, a tax inspector was forced by a court of law to take back his statement that Cok was the "largest money launderer in Zeeuw-Flanders". Took over 18 million euros in stock from Charles Geerts' porn company in 1995. In 1998, Engelsma, Geerts and Cok, the owners of Scala, made a deal with the District Attorney's office in Amsterdam to pay 5,5 million euros in return for non-prosecution on charges of fraud and money laundering. Sold Scala and Pabo to Beate Uhse in 1999. Director of Beate Uhse. Owner of European Business Consult GmbH. Cok and his family own Summa N.V. in Belgium.

** Charles Geerts (nicknamed "fat charles"; went into the porn business in the early 1960s; became a millionaire many times over and headed companies as Intex and Scala; arrested in the US in 1985 for trade in illegal pornography; suspected of trade in child pornography at the time by US authorities, but nothing was proven; in 1987, it became known that Scotland Yard suspected Geerts of being one of the international child pornography kingpins. Inspector Donaldson of Scotland Yard stated: "Videorama, as well as Scala Agenturen BV, has been involved in child pornography"; his firm Scala laundered money for Bruinsma and Reuben Sturman; client of Faber, De Jong & Blom in the 1980s, together with notorious figures as Klaas Bruisma, John Engelsma, Etienne Urka, men from Sam Klepper's gang, and others; present at the wedding of Bram Moszkowicz, Holland's most famous lawyer and former lawyer of Willem Holleeder, one of the most notorious gangsters in Holland). Geerts was a good friend of the late Klaas Bruinsma, once Holland's most well-known and ruthless gangster. In the late 1980s, Bruisma was the largest drug dealer in Europe. Bruisma had a close relationship with Mabel Wisse Smit, these days daughter-in-law of Queen Beatrix. At least in the years before his death, Smit (raised by Peter Wisse Smit, a director at the large RABO bank; allegedly, Peter Smit had introduced Klaas Bruisma, at one point Holland's and Europe's biggest drug dealer, not to mention a friend and alleged girlfriend of Mabel, to Dutch aristocratic circles; traineeship at the United Nations, Shell, ABN AMRO and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; former girlfriend of former UN Ambassador to the Balkans Mohammed Sacirbey, who was arrested on charges that he laundered $600,000 of UN and Bosnian government funds; co-founder of War Child in the Netherlands in 1995; director of George Soros' Open Society Institute in Brussels since 1997; appeared on a leaked scientology mailing list with her Open Society email; married Prince Johan Friso, second son of Queen Beatrix, in 2003) regularly visited Bruisma on his yacht. Bruisma is often named in one breath with other (former) Dutch gangster as Willem Holleeder, Mink Kok, Sam Klepper and John Mieremet. Even though they are well known criminals, most of these men tend or tended to stay out of jail. Their careers more often than not are ended by gangland assassinations. November 26, 1985 newspaper article brought into view by Zembla, De X-dossiers - Part II (March 18, 2003): "On top of that, the American Justice department suspects the Amsterdammer of other serious facts, which would have been committed in Europe, like trade in child pornography, anesthetics and weapons. Certain things have been confirmed by a spokesperson of the company of Charles G., the wholesale in videos and sex magazines, Intex Nederland BV... According to Marie, the Intex director was already closely monitored for years at all American airports without ever being arrested. Van Marie: "I think it has to do with child pornography. The Americans have been fixated on Holland for years and still think this is the center of child pornography. One and a half years ago, however, we were visited by the police and cleaned up all the child pornography [reference to minimum age differences between countries]." February 13, 1990, Toronto Star, 'U.S. porn king jailed 10 years for tax evasion': "CLEVELAND, Ohio - The world's largest distributor of hard-core pornography - and the main importer into Ontario - has been sentenced to 10 years in jail and fined $2.5 million for tax evasion and obstruction of justice. Reuben Sturman [protected by the NYC Gambino crime family] "directed a 20-year-long conspiracy to evade taxes and conceal his ownership" of a far-flung pornography empire, U.S. government lawyers said here during yesterday's sentencing... Charles Geerts of Holland, a friend of Sturman and an international distributor of child pornography, according to investigators, put up $500,000 of Sturman's bail without security or collateral." Nieuwe Revu, 'The truth about child pornography', as brought into view by Zembla, De X-dossiers - Part II (March 18, 2003): "For months the Nieuwe Revu involved itself in the world of child pornography... in that small world the same name is mentioned time and time again: Charles Geerts. He would, to this day, be involved in the trade in child pornography. But Geerts himself denies. Firmly." April 4, 1995, South China Morning Post: "HONG KONG has become the focus of a five-year Dutch money laundering and tax evasion investigation linked to a series of murders, drug trafficking, pornography, and millions of dollars in allegedly dirty cash... The investigation revolves around alleged tax evasion by Dutchman Charlie Geerts , who runs the largest pornographic business in Europe and who was arrested last November. His company, Scala, based in Holland where pornography is legal, is also under investigation, as is a Hong Kong company believed to have been used as a front to launder about $100 million since 1988... A source said profits from European drug trafficking were brought to Hong Kong and laundered through the company here, then wired back to Holland as large loans for gang members." January 19, 2007, Deutsche Press-Agentur, 'Amsterdam's prostitute windows gain temporary reprieve': "Amsterdam (dpa) - An Amsterdam court Friday granted a temporary reprieve to 33 sex businesses in the city's Red Light District, reversing a decision by the city authorities to withdraw their licences. The court ruled the Amsterdam city authorities, who allege the businesses are linked to organized crime, had no "urgent need" to close down the businesses - largely the prostitutes' windows for which the area is famous... The 33 business, most of them owned or financed by businessman Charles Geerts, are estimated to make up around a third of all the prostitutes' windows in the "Wallen," as the Dutch capital's Red Light District is known."

On February 13, 1984, 8:45 PM, after an emergency fire response to an old champignon factory, the 16 year old Christine Van Hees was found dead. She had been severely tortured before having been murdered. The perpetrators tried to burn the body, but this was only partly successful. Against standard regulations, two heads of investigation were appointed to the Van Hees case, instead of one: Guy Collignon and Georges Ceupens. In the years that followed, a group of punks began making completely incoherent statements that they had murdered Christine Van Hees. They also talked about black masses, druidism and satanism. The chief suspect of the murder became Serge Clooth, a drug addicted punk who almost daily completely changed his previous testimony. He did, however, seem to know a few details about the murder. In November 1984, his grandmother testified that a young Brussels attorney had informed her son (Serge's father) that Serge had been drugged and liquored up by the judicial police in return for reading up a scripted testimony. In January 1985, investigating judge Michel Eloy (also tasked with the CCC bombings; would never meet the parents of Van Hees) was struck by a heart attack, followed by a nervous breakdown. In June 1985, Eloy quit his job and decided to move to the Seychellen. Jean-Claude Van Espen (a buddy of Nihoul who helped torpedo the X-witnesses investigation), a rookie who had no experience with murder cases, became the new examining magistrate. Van Espen also did not contact the parents of Christine and never visited the crime scene. On November 25, 1985, Van Espen first met Serge who again stated that his earlier statements were repeats of what the police officers read out to him. Serge was released on November 17, 1987. Around this time he came into contact with Didier de Quevy (lawyer of Alexis Alewaeters and soon Marc Dutroux) and Jean-Paul Dumont (CEPIC lawyer; accused by different sources of being part of the Nihoul abuse network), who represented him at the European Court of Human Rights. In 1991, Belgium was condemned for having detained Clooth too long without any good reason. Quevy talked about the police rewarding suspects with drugs in exchange for testimonies. One of the punks, Marc Duriau, had died on August 1, 1986 from an overdose of heroin in the presence of his lawyer and two other once suspected junks. Clooth and another punk would later claim that Duriau knew too much and therefore was killed. The lawyer was later arrested for involvement in drug business with these punks. At some point, Guy Collignon, one of two chief investigators of the Christine Van Hees case, picked up Michel, Christine's younger brother, from school. According to Michel, Collignon told him: "While I was eating, de Collignon explained to me that the investigation was evolving towards important, high level people. He said it would be better to leave those people alone, that he would soon be promoted and that he would probably not be involved anymore in the investigation." (PV 100.450, January 19, 1997). In 1996, X1 was shown pictures of the punks, but didn't recognize any of them.

On October 25, 1996, X1 mentioned a number of girls she had witnessed being murdered. Among these names was a "Kristien". Because of the timeframe, De Baets and Hupez soon thought about "le crime de la champignonniere", but thought it had been solved (the punks). After inquiring they were told that this was not the case. According to X1, Christine had met with Nihoul in October 1983 with whom she started a relationship. Christine had been fascinated with Nihoul, but indicated to friends that she didn't really love this person (didn't give her friends any details about who this person was). According to X1, after Christine had been initiated to the network through a traumatizing ritual abuse ceremony, Christine had told X1 that she was very afraid to talk with her parents about the mess she had gotten herself into. Not only was she afraid that her parents wouldn't understand, she also worried about threats of Nihoul that her family would be hurt if she spoke to them about the network. Against all protocols, X1 told Christine that she should try to speak with her parents. When X1 indicated to Mieke, another girl from the network, that she had given this advice to Christine, Mieke went to Nihoul and Tony and told them about X1's advice to Christine. The reason for Mieke ratting out X1 was that she was afraid of reprisals if Christine suddenly left. Besides that, Christine was very unpopular, even with X1, because she didn't handle the abuse very well, and as a result of that the other girls were continually punished for her mistakes and stubborn behaviour. In the days after Mieke had informed Tony and Nihoul, Christine was tortured and murdered in the presence of X1. According to X1, Michel Nihoul, Annie Bouty, Bernard Weinstein, Marc Dutroux, Michel Vander Elst, Tony and the parents of Anne (a girl in the network) were present at the murder. Because no higher level officials were mentioned in this case, it had been given priority by the Obelix cell. Van Espen again headed the inquiry and saw to it that it was terminated.

Following is a list of points that show - almost beyond doubt - why the Christine of X1 was Christine Van Hees. That's not to say that every detail or name mentioned by X1 is also accurate.

• X1 had stated that Dutroux, who she described as a bit of an outsider, was present at the murder of Christine. Research showed that in the early 1980s Marc Dutroux and Bernard Weinstein visited the same skating rink as Christine Van Hees. According to Michele Martin, Dutroux went there alone since 1983 to make it easier for him to "seduce girls". Just before her death, it is known that Christine had a date with a "Marc" who could well have been Marc Dutroux. However, no conclusive research has been carried out. Additionally, Nathalie Geirnaert, a friend of Christine who lived in the same street as her, recognized Marc Dutroux on two old pictures from the early 1980s as someone who she had seen in the company of Christine. Nathalie explained that in the days before her kidnapping, Christine had become extremely scared of someone or something. When she would leave Nathalie's house, Christine would ask Nathalie to accompany her to her house or ask her to stay at the door until she was inside. The night before the murder Nathalie noticed a suspicious black car in front of Christine's house from 23:30 to 13:00. A man had been sitting behind the wheel the whole time. Nothing was done with Nathalie's testimony.
• According to X1, Christine had met Nihoul in October 1983 and had begun a relationship with him. Friends of Christine later testified that she had begun to act different for the first time in October 1983. Also, Christine often went to the swimming bath of Etterbeek. One floor above this swimming bath the radio show of Michel Nihoul was located. Nihoul had already been very active in Etterbeek through the Dolo. Coincidentally, during the investigation into Christine's murder an anonymous tip came in that the Dolo in Etterbeek was the key to solving the Christine Van Hees murder. No investigation was carried out. In fact, somehow the investigators, headed by Van Espen, managed to write down that the tip was about cafe Chez Dolores instead of the Dolo.
• In late 1984, Fabienne Kirby, a friend of Christine Van Hees in her final months, gave a testimony that would not be incompatible with the one of X1 12 years later. According to Fabienne, Christine had told her how she had ended up in a dangerous group of people involved in sex orgies and apparently sadism. PV 7112, February 20, 1984, Fabienne Kirby (anonymous at the time) to the judicial police: "We got to know each other in October 1983. Over time our discussions became more and more intimate. Christine told such unbelievable stories that I slowly became convinced that she made things up. She told me that she had gotten to know a group of people. She regularly saw them at an abandoned house close to her house. She regularly saw these people in the months October and November 1983. These people were older than Christine. She explained to me that meetings were held in that house, to which a road led about nobody knew. Other girls were in the group. Sometimes, she said, she went alone to the house to write her diary. Christine never spoke about this with girls from her school class. I was bewildered when she told me what happened there. She told me that if she ever spoke about this with her parents or brothers, her so-called friends would kill her and burn down the house. She told that in the group free love is practiced... She told me that this group attracted and frightened her at the same time. In early 1984, I noticed that Christine had changed a lot. She had lost weight, was paler and in any case took less care of herself. She said she wanted to blow up all bridges because very bad things had happened. I noticed that she had bruises, and a cigarette burn on her arm. She then explained that it had started as a game, that those games had started slowly, but then became violent. Christine had come into conflict with one of the other girls in the other group. She felt very much attracted to a member of the gang. She told me that it was possible to feel sexually attracted to a man, without really loving him. She truanted from school. About her friends she said: 'They are pigs, but I feel good with them.' She said me that, once you ended up in that milieu, you never got out. It was of little use, she said, to talk about it with someone, because no one would believe her.'" Kirby explained that she had undergone an abortion during the time that she knew Christine. The father would have been a member of the Derochette family and a full cousin of the now well known pedophile Patrick Derochette. A law clerk of examining magistrate Jean-Claude Van Espen, who headed the investigation into Christine Van Hees, married into the Derochette family and was tied to the kidnapping and murder of Loubna Benaissa. It is known that a woman named Nathalie Perignon phoned up Fabienne during the Dutroux and X-witness investigation. Coincidentally, Perignon had been present with three men in a black car observing the champignon factory where Christine had been murdered the week before. All four individuals in the car worked at Nihoul's Radio Activite and personally knew Nihoul.
• X1 was blindfolded and bare-footed when she, Christine and the abusers stepped out of the car. Before entering the compound she felt a lot of gravel under her feet. It is correct that in 1984 there was gravel all over the place.
• The compound she was brought into smelled moldy, like it hadn't been used for a long time. This seems likely, as the champignon factory had been abandoned since 1972.
• X1's overall description of the champignon factory where Christine was murdered is accurate. The former owner and his son could step by step find themselves in the description given by X1; from stepping out of the car to the location where Christine had been murdered. The son of the former owner of the champignon factory to Zembla (Dutch TV), 'De X-dossiers - Part I' (March 11, 2003): "The doors. We had very special, hand-made doors. Old doors with ornaments, which she described perfectly. She knew all that. She drew the chimney and the living room. It matched quite well. The chimney looked like it. She drew the rose window. A rose window is a rose window. It could well be our rose window. What she told about the champignoniere was accurate. I showed the description [of X1] to one of my brothers. That girl had to have been there. There's no other way." 1999, Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck, Annemie Bulte and Douglas De Coninck, 'De X-Dossiers', p. 244-245: "The son is responsible for a stir when the texts [descriptions of the champignoniere of X1 and an inspector at the scene. They differ] are presented to him. 'That police officer has not been inside there, your witness X1 was'... The police officer in question, Jacques Dekock, is summoned that evening and immediately confronted with the son. The confrontation doesn't last long. It's true, he admits. He was so dismayed by the body that evening that he hardly looked at the rest of the building. The complex was demolished in 1989. Nowhere information is available about how the building looked in 1984. It was such a complex clew of houses, hangers, driveways, halls and basements that all who would try to do a little guessing on describing the place would be seen through immediately. And that is what is so bizarre. The inspectors just couldn't figure it out how X1 told them that she got there by car, stepped out, stumbled... The son of the owner had no problems with this. Almost immediately he could tell exactly through where X1 entered the building and how she reached the basement. That she stumbled in the hall is logical, he says. More people used to do that. By rebuilding two houses into one, a connection had been created with two stairs: the first one going down, then up again. 'In reality she was in the kitchen', the son deducts from the description of the wallpaper and the tiles - which also is perfectly accurate. He went through it with his family. 'There are things we read in her testimony that reminded us of details that we ourselves had long forgotten, like the motif on the tiles', he later says. Indeed, from the kitchen there was a separate doorway to the basement. And those flesh hooks? Yet another detail that only now recalls memories. 'Of course, then she was in the scullery', the son says. His uncle made meat pies and had created a sort of industrial kitchen in the adjacent building. With a pen in his hand the son draws the route that X1 must have travelled that night. The rugged wooden table, the rain barrel... Yes, yes, his father had left that when he moved out. It is extraordinarily, no question about it."
• In 1984, a tampon with blood on it was found in a building located 30 feet away from the basement in which Christine had been murdered. This matches X1's 1996 testimony that blood in the vagina of Christine had been absorbed with a tampon. The blood type matched that of Christine's. A DNA test was in process in 1999, just as a DNA test on a cigarette butt that had been found at the murder site. However, Van Espen closed the investigation before the results could be made available. Burned notebooks and a satchel belonging to Christine were found in the same building, disproving claims from magistrates that this building was not accessible at the time of the murder. By confusing the description of the building and the basement, these magistrates had first claimed that X1's description of the murder site wasn't correct and that the bloody tampon was irrelevant. However, they were later forced to recant this argument as X1 had always made a clear distinction between the building where the abuse and torture began, and the basement where Christine was ultimately murdered.
• In the last room X1 said she and Christine had been brought, she had seen a rope and a jerrycan. The police report at the time stated that a rope and a jerrycan had been found in the room where Christine had been found.
• According to X1, candles were the only source of light in the building. A candle was among the items found at the murder location.
• Christine's body had been found lying face down, arching back because a metal strand had been tied from her neck to her wrists and on to her ankles. X1 had mentioned how her Christine had been tied up in this same way and with a metal strand.
• According to X1, Christine was set on fire while lying tied up on the ground. The autopsy report of Christine Van Hees showed that her body had been burned to such a degree that it initially was hard to tell her gender.
• X1 described how one of Christine's wrists was penetrated by a "a metal bar... hollow inside... 30 centimeters long". Although the re-readers tried to deny the existence of a wound to Christine's left wrist, the first police commissioner to describe the scene wrote in his official report: "A nail is planted in the left wrist" and indicated that it had been taken from one of the numerous racks that were located in the building. Reading the testimony of X1, the former owner and his family also immediately thought about the racks and estimated the length of these hollow tubes at "30 or 40 centimeters". The "nails" in these racks indeed were thin hollow tubes, which at one time supported the shelves with growing mushrooms. Investigators and magistrates tried to spin the story by claiming that X1 had spoken about a "crucifixion" and specifically a "nail". Earlier, they had tried to claim that no object had penetrated the wrist of Christine. However, they could not convince the officer who had found the body of Christine to change his initial 1984 report.
• According to X1, Michel Vander Elst was the one who beat the nail-like object through Christine's wrist with a hammer. A hammer was found at the location where Christine had been murdered.
• The girl X1 talked about having been murdered was "Chrissie", full name Christine. She gave this name and details about the murder before De Baets and team could match it with the Christine Van Hees murder. Coincidentally, all other details also matched the story of X1.

Following are some of the "strongest" arguments used against X1's testimony about Christine Van Hees. Most of these arguments from the justice department were publicly made available on April 29, 1998, by Flemish newspapers as De Standaard and Het Nieuwsblad. Substitute magistrate Paule Somers was the main source of these articles.

• ARGUMENT: The building X1 described certainly was not the place where Christine had been found.
  EXPLANATION: Nobody, and certainly not X1, claimed that Christine had been murdered in the building. X1 had always made a distinction between the building where the abuse and torture began, and the basement, located about 30 feet away, where Christine had been murdered. X1's description of the whole location was considered perfectly accurate by the former owners. Somers would later also acknowledge that X1's description was accurate, but quickly added that the building was not accessible at the time of the murder.
• ARGUMENT: The investigators found a tampon, but only in a building adjacent to the location where Christine was found. This building was sealed at the time of the murder. Also, the tampon had only a little bit of blood on it and was not "soaked".
  EXPLANATION: Burned notebooks and a satchel belonging to Christine were found in the same building as where the tampon was found. The first discovered fire on the evening of the murder also started in this building. According to X1, the torture of Christine started when her group entered this building. Exactly how bloody the tampon was is a relatively minor detail.
• ARGUMENT: There was no wound to the wrist of Christine. A nail or hollow tube had melted into Christine's wrist after she had been set on fire.
  EXPLANATION: The re-readers tried to convince the police officer who had described the murder scene that he was wrong when he wrote in his official report: "A nail is planted in the left wrist". Even after showing him photos from 1984, the police officer saw no reason to recant his report about what he had seen. Apparently this did not matter to the re-readers.
• ARGUMENT: X1 had taken all of her information from old newspapers.
  EXPLANATION: No old newspaper clippings about the Van Hees murder were found in the possession of X1. Many small details X1 mentioned never appeared in the newspapers. X1's description of the building is a clear indication that she actually has been at the champignoniere.
• ARGUMENT: The parents of Christine Van Hees tricked X1 during a confrontation by asking X1 about Christine's trip to Canada in the weeks before her death. According to magistrate Paule Somers, "X1 immediately remembered what Christine had been telling about that. But mother Van Hees trapped X1. Christine had never been to Canada."
  EXPLANATION: In early 1999, Brussels lawyer Patricia Vandersmissen volunteered to help X1 defend herself against the constant barrage of press attacks. As a result, she was given insight into a portion of the X-dossier. One of the first things Vandersmissen wanted to find out was what X1 exactly had said in response to the statement that Christine had been to Canada in the weeks before her death. Vandersmissen read the whole transcript of the confrontation from front to back and from back to front. It turned out that the only thing X1 had said about Christine's alleged trip to Canada was: "I don't think we ever got the chance, to talk about those things." That's it. The newspapers and magistrates had been lying.
• ARGUMENT: X1 could not identify the picture of Christine Van Hees.
  EXPLANATION: This misidentification happened on November 13, 1996, at 7 in the morning, after 8 hours of interviewing. X1 was given five pictures and correctly stated that Christine was among them. However, as happened many times before and after this interview, X1 had tremendous difficulty with looking at pictures. Because she had MPS/DID, looking at the correct pictures triggered horrible repressed memories. As she had already been interviewed for eight hours, she had stated several times that it had been enough for that night. However, De Baets kept pushing, and according to X1, she knew that if she correctly identified Christine, the interview would continue for at least another hour. Therefore she randomly picked from the other faces and made it clear that she was just making a statement. X1: "If you were able to look at the tape, you would see that after I pointed to the picture P10 I looked at De Baets and Hupez with an exultant look on my face. Like: and now it's your turn! I wanted to make it clear to them that I was serious that I wanted to go home. I was furious at them, then." The interviewers apparently got the message and not only broke off the interview, but also wrote down that X1 intentionally picked the wrong photo. PV 116.990, November 13, 1996, 7th interview of X1: "X1 recognizes Christine on photo." Explanation in PV 117.487, December 12, 1996 (Hupez), which was ignored by the re-readers: "Topic: identification of the picture X1-P10. During her interview, described in the official report under reference A, X1 described the murder on victim, Christine... X1 testified to have recognized Christine between the pictures presented to her, but does not identify the picture she recognizes. The question is asked again to X1 (line 1305 and further), who hesitates continually, comes with the same arguments pertaining to this recognition: - If I do this everything becomes real again - I am afraid to be wrong - It has been such a long time - I doubt myself - I knew her, but I doubt myself, because it was in different circumstances, certainly in other circumstances than on the photo. Finally, X1 points to the picture X1-P10. We identified the person on photo P10 as D. Anik... It not about the victim X1 spoke... 414 We conclude from this: 1. the picture P10, pointed out by X1, is not the victim she spoke about, Christine. 2. But the photo of the victim was among those shown to X1 [5 in total], which she intentionally didn't point out."

In other words, it appears that none of the arguments of the re-readers stand up to scrutiny and the X1-Christine Van Hees dossier should never have been closed.

X1 recognized Katrien de Cuyper among a batch of pictures of children (PV 150.067, February 2, 1997); interviewed about the girl a week later in which she gave a story that put her Katrien in the same timeframe as Katrien de Cuyper's disappearance

Born on April 29, 1976. Disappeared in the evening of December 17, 1991 in Antwerp, after having last been seen making a phone call in the cafe les Routiers (the Truck Drivers). Found dead on June 22, 1992. Autopsy showed she had been murdered soon after the kidnapping.

X1 recognized Katrien from a series of pictures shown to her on February 2, 1997. Although she had no way of knowing for sure, X1 thought that this girl had been recruited by Tony. About the timeframe: "I am not able to perfectly remind when it precisely happened. I believe that I already had Eli. I'm not certain of Yentl... It happened more or less in this period." Eli was born on July 3, 1990. Yentl born on July 18, 1991. X1 said how this girl, which she remembered being called Katrien (Dutch)/Catherine (French), had been taken to a castle and was murdered by a group that included Michel Nihoul, Annie Bouty, Joost Bert, Michel Vander Elst, Tony Vandenbogaert, Leopold Lippens, the assumed owner of the castle, and several others. In fact, X1 was forced to kill Katrien. At the time of the interview, X1 didn't know the name of the castle, nor the exact location, but after she had given a description of the castle and the route she had travelled in 1990 or 1991, the investigators were able to find the domain in question. It turned out to be Castle Kattenhof. Before she was killed, X1 had noticed that Katrien lacked the routine the more experienced girls had. Later on, X1 would testify that she had been taken to this castle on at least a dozen occasions and that quite a number of girls were abused and killed here.

X1 remembered her Katrien as (she could hardly be sure about some of the smaller details):

• Called Katrien by Tony, Nihoul, etc.
• 12 or 13 years old.
• Blond hair to her shoulders, not even.
• Light-colored eyes, possibly brown.
• Still a child.
• Not fat.
• Quite pale.
• About 160 cm tall.
• Dark armpit hair.

Investigators into the disappearance of Katrien and the claims made by X1 completely dismissed the possibility that the Katrien of X1 could possibly have been Katrien De Cuyper. They gave the following reasons:

• Katrien looked at least like a 16 year old, while X1 spoke about a 12 or 13 year old girl (at the time of her disappearance Katrien was 15 years and 8 months old).
• Katrien was not a child anymore. She already had female curves. X1 stated that her Katrien still looked very much like a child.
• 170 cm tall instead of "approximately 160".
• Katrien had clear blue eyes, instead of the "light-colored, possibly brown" eyes described by X1.
• Katrien's hair reached just past her shoulders. X1 had correctly described the color of the hair, but stated that it reached to her shoulders and was uneven.
• Katrien wasn't pale. She had a normal color. X1 had stated that her Katrien looked pale.
• She had light-blond armpit hair, instead of the dark armpit hair described by X1.

Although X1's description appears to be far from perfect, most people who look at the cartographic sketch based on X1's description and pictures of Katrien De Cuyper, combined with the timeframe in which X1 placed the murder and the fact that researchers could identify the castle X1 spoke about, will conclude that the conclusion that Katrien de Cuyper in no way could have been X1's Katrien is a bit of overdrawn. The case X1-Katrien de Cuyper was closed after this conclusion was reached.

However, one of the most interesting aspect of the X1-Katrien de Cuyper case is that during the observation of Tony Vandenbogaert, X1's pimp, it had become known that Tony was in continuous contact with a gendarme officer from Antwerp. They would regularly call or email each other. But interestingly, after this fact had already become known, this particular gendarme officer was appointed to a leading position in the investigation into this same Tony. De Baets and his team reminded their superiors that this was an obvious conflict of interest. However, no changes were made, and this gendarme officer became one of those responsible for dismissing the possibility that the Katrien described by X1 couldn't possibly have been Katrien de Cuyper (in whose murder Tony was implicated by X1). March 18, 2003, Zembla (Dutch TV), 'De X-dossiers - Part II' : "[Patricia van der Smissen, lawyer of Regina Louf:] It was observed that he phoned this person more than ten times on a day that he was observed. Maybe he noticed that he was being shadowed. In any case, he often called this gendarme officer. We also know that they were in contact over the internet. And from one day to the next this person is put on the case, after it had already been known that he was in contact with Tony... [BOB officer Rudy Hoskens of De Baets' investigating team:] Then you start asking yourself a few questions, wouldn't you? Then this is not the right person in the right place. I did complain about this to my superiors, but this person kept serving on the same dossier."

In mid 1999, when the Dutch police put together a catalog of pictures found at the home of paedophile Gerrie Ulrich, there was a porn photo in there of a girl who closely resembled Katrien de Cuyper. Among the pictures and documents found at Ulrich were forms to make requests for specific forms of child pornography. An investigation showed that Ulrich regularly donated large sums of money to a post office box located above the cafe in Antwerp where Katrien De Cuyper had last been seen making a phone call. Two Dutch porn firms were located at this address: Studio De Pauw and X-Kiss. Whether or not Katrien de Cuyper was found among the pictures in Ulrich's home, in 2004, the District Attorney's office in Antwerp closed the case by stating that the picture in Ulrich's home "appears to be a boy", after having been shown a picture -allegedly a photomontage- of "Katrien" with the body of boy. Anyone who has taken a look at the picture will know that the unidentified person which was suspected to be Katrien unmistakably was a girl.