Editing Marc Dutroux (section)

=== Dutroux's testimony ===
Dutroux claimed that he was a low dog in a powerful [[pedophile network]]. He further claimed that Michel Nihoul was the organizer of their abductions. While admitting some abductions, he denied being a murderer, although he had earlier confessed to killing Weinstein.<ref name="irishtimes.com1" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Black |first=Ian |date=11 Jun 2004 |title=Dutroux insists he was part of paedophile ring |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/jun/11/dutroux.ianblack |access-date=13 Sep 2022 |website=The Guardian |archive-date=13 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220913201349/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/jun/11/dutroux.ianblack |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="guardingdungeondeath">{{cite web |last1=Black |first1=Ian |date=4 March 2004 |title=Dutroux boasts of dungeon of death |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/mar/04/dutroux.ianblack |access-date=8 November 2019 |website=[[The Guardian]] |archive-date=20 February 2017 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20170220042249/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/mar/04/dutroux.ianblack |url-status=live }}</ref> He said that he did torture and abuse all of the girls but denied killing any of them until the very end.<ref name="telegraphkill" /> Dutroux further denied kidnapping, raping and murdering Julie Lejeune and Mélissa Russo. He, however, admitted to incarcerating them at one of his houses.<ref name="guardian" />   In the case of Lejeune and Russo, Dutroux also claimed that he had "protected them from a powerful and sinister child sex ring."<ref name="guardiandungeondeath">{{cite web |last1=Black |first1=Ian |title=Dutroux boasts of dungeon of death |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/mar/04/dutroux.ianblack |archive-url=https://archive.today/20170220042249/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/mar/04/dutroux.ianblack |url-status=dead |archive-date=20 February 2017 |website=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=8 November 2019}}</ref> His testimony that he never raped Lejeune and Russo was somewhat supported by examinations by psychiatrists in 1996, which stated that Dutroux did not fit the paedophile profile. He was not attracted to children, but he might have chosen to abduct younger victims because they were easier to manipulate and control.<ref name="profile" />{{check quotation}} Dutroux admitted to the abduction and rape of the other girls. He also admitted to burying his accomplice, Bernard Weinstein, alive for ''"''letting the girls die."<ref name="telegraphburied" /> Dutroux further said that two unidentified policemen had taken part with him in the kidnapping of An Marchal and Eefje Lambrecks.<ref name="guardiandungeondeath" /> He boasted about having built the dungeon in which Marchal and Lambrecks were held for a while. He said: ''"''I wanted to create a hiding place to spare them from being sent to a prostitution ring.''"'' Dutroux admitted to raping Lambrecks. He said that Weinstein had raped Marchal. He also admitted to drugging both of them. Dutroux also admitted that he kidnapped Sabine Dardenne and raped her. He admitted to kidnapping and raping Laetitia Delhez but not handing them over to Nihoul "to spare them the fate of An and Eefje."<ref name="guardiandungeondeath" /> Dutroux's lawyer, Xavier Magnee, repeatedly said that the prosecution never followed up on evidence of a network surrounding Dutroux.<ref name="telegraphburied" />