November 8, 2022 • 30 mins
Much has happened in the aftermath of Belgium's trial of the century. 17 years have passed and questions surrounding the Dutroux Affair still remain. Host Matt Graves speaks with a woman who recently shared her experiences with a child sex trafficking ring in Belgium involving Michel Nihoul.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely
those of the podcast author or individuals participating in the podcast,
and do not represent those of iHeartMedia, Tenderfoot TV, or
their employees. This podcast also contains subject matter which may
not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Michel Pirot, nightclub owner, promised to make revelations about Julian
Melissa's kidnappings, murdered shortly afterwards in a parking lot. Jean
Paul Tamigneaux, acquaintance of de True active in Charlewaugh Carr
theft ring, told a friend he'd received important information about
the kidnappings. Disappeared shortly afterwards in nineteen ninety five. His
(00:46):
severed foot was found a year later in a river.
The rest of the body was never recovered. Bruno taglia Ferro,
acquaintance of the True active in Charlewaiugh car theft ring wife,
said he was asked to get rid of the car
used to kidnap U Melissa and that he feared for
his life. Died under mysterious circumstances. Body was exhumed on
order of Judge Conrad for testing posthumous autopsy. Death declared
(01:11):
as murdered by poisoning. Fabien jo Bards, wife of Bruno
taglia Ferro, claimed to have found important documents related to
her husband's murder. Burned to death in a bed soaked
in methanol. Declared a suicide. Ghi Gobel Gendarmes and Garsolonna,
one of the very few gendarmes to obtain the confidence
(01:31):
of the parents of Julian Melissa, found dead with a
bullet in his head the day Operation Othello started. Declared
a suicide. These are just five of the over twenty
mysterious deaths surrounding the the true affair, and additional reasons
why many believe there are still powerful people involved who've
never been brought to justice.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Champsychopats is somebody who understood emotions, and I told them
it is very exceptional that somebody abducts two children at
the same time.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
Should have been the end of it in nineteen eighty six,
but my god, it was just a beginning.
Speaker 5 (02:15):
I think Belgium was a paralyzed for perverts in those days.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Welcome to la monstre. I'm your host. Matt Graves, after
an investigation plagued by incompetence and cover ups, and a
trial where the judge purposely avoided elements pointing to a
larger conspiracy mark. The true was sentenced to life without parole,
Michelle Martin to thirty years, l Lievre to twenty five years,
(02:49):
and Michelle Nihul only got five years for criminal association
and drug trafficking. The trial of the century was over,
but the country would never be the same. The Gendarmerie
was discontinued as an institution and Belgian law enforcement was
completely restructured as a direct result of this affair, basically
(03:10):
the equivalent of shutting down the FBI in the United States.
If you can imagine that several ministers, police officers, and
magistrates either resigned, were fired, or quit their jobs, and
millions of Belgians felt their country had covered up or
even participated in the worst crimes imaginable. The aftermath of
(03:31):
the trial would provide little opportunity for healing, as the
judicial system would continue to fail the victims and their families.
Michel n Whoul, after serving just a third of his
sentence for drug trafficking, was paroled in two thousand and five.
In twenty twelve, Michen Martin was given early release as well,
paroled after just serving sixteen years of a thirty year sentence.
(03:55):
Although the conditions of her parole were strict, the public
was outraged, again, taking to the streets and protest. The victims'
families were also stunned about her early release. The father
of Anne, Paul.
Speaker 6 (04:12):
Marschall, thirty year for me was thirty years. It was
very difficult to accept. But now I have to accept
sixteen years, so you can imagine what I am feeling.
Speaker 7 (04:28):
Michelle Martin says that after years of psychiatric help, she
is free of Mark d' true's influence. The crimes the
pair committed made this country question itself and it is
questioning itself again now as she enjoys freedom. Emma Murphy
ITV News, Brussels.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
In twenty nineteen, Michel Lalieva was released from prison despite
appeals from victims families and a protest in Brussels dubbed
the Black March. He served twenty three of his twenty
five year sentence. After his release, he moved to a
neighborhood in Brussels, where it didn't take long for him
to get recognized. According to reports, he was beaten up
(05:07):
by a group of neighborhood kids. When Michele Martin was
released in twenty twelve, the terms were that she would
be confined to the Clarisse Convent in Malonne, near Namur
in the south of Belgium. After serving ten years under
strict supervision, she would be eligible for full release with
no conditions. Just over a month ago, as the first
(05:29):
episodes of La Monceau were published, Michele Martin was released
from the monastery with all conditions lifted. She is a
completely free woman today. Jean Lambreck's the father of Eefia,
said quote, it's clear that she's guilty of much more
than what the official and public version wants us to believe.
(05:49):
She actively participated in several rapes by drugging the victims.
She had a serious rap sheet before she even committed
these crimes, yet she was still released early. This situation
is very depressing. Unquote. Mark the True, still serving a
life sentence, applied for conditional release in twenty twelve. It
(06:11):
was rejected, but in twenty thirteen he appealed the decision.
His mother, who hadn't been heard from since the trial,
spoke up again, saying quote Mark is not ready to
be released because he's still trying to blame others for
what he did. I'm certain that he will start again.
He has no sense of reality. He's a repeat offender
(06:33):
in his soul, as he's already proven throughout his life unquote.
Shortly after her statement, the tru's appeal was rejected. In
twenty nineteen, he again applied for conditional release, which required
an examination by a psychiatrists. When the psychiatric report concluded
that the True remained dangerous and had a psychopathic profile,
(06:55):
his lawyer, Bruno Dallier dropped the parole request, saying quote,
I must postpone my plans because proposing a credible reclassification
plan with this diagnosis, I really don't see who will accept.
Dallier also made it clear that he would not give
up on his efforts to free the True, as I
(07:18):
continued to investigate the loose ends of the de True affair.
The decades long saga has reached the present day and
were now breaking new ground. A listener of La Monstre
in Switzerland reached out to tell me about a woman
named Annika Lucas who shared her experiences with child sex
trafficking in Belgium in a book published just a few
(07:39):
months ago. I was able to interview her when she
came to Europe recently. Annika explained to me that she
left Belgium in the nineteen eighties to go to the
United States to escape a child trafficking network. She claims
that this network involved Michel Nihoul. I've been able to
confirm some parts of her story. I know that she's
(08:02):
indeed from Belgium, and that she was certainly sexually abused
as a child, and that she escaped to America, where
she's been living since the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 8 (08:12):
Yes, I was born in Belgium, in Brussels, and my
mother was single, and when I was three she married
someone in Flanders. Now she abused me from childhood. I
started first with the and her husband, who had been
taking me on little outings.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
There were always other children there.
Speaker 8 (08:33):
They took me the first time into what was an orgy,
and that was a horrific experience. I was also that
same night very graphically threatened to make sure I would
never speak up.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
I wanted to speak to Anika because she claims to
have direct experience with Michelle, who way back in the
nineteen seventies.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
The boss of the network.
Speaker 8 (09:03):
He gifted me to an international networker and that man
ended up taking an interest in me and taking me
with him to train me. So I was nine years
old when this happened, and taken him to different places
in on the East Coast in the United States to
(09:25):
learn about that world. That year s nineteen seventy two,
taken to different places, especially Germany. But still even though
I was gone the entire summer of nineteen seventy two,
I still would come back and go to school.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
I was from then on used in the.
Speaker 8 (09:44):
Network by Belgian network, mostly for the VIP guests that
would come from then on. So nineteen seventy two to
nineteen seventy four, when I was rescued by someone from
the inside, it was really a last minute decision on
his part.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
It wasn't meant to happen.
Speaker 8 (10:05):
I was in fact taken away to be tortured. That
the torture was led by the person I knew as
the middleman for a lot of the orgies, someone who
was very happy, the brown nose with the VIPs the network, Michelle,
who was in charge.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
I was given to him. He was the middleman, so
he was rather new.
Speaker 8 (10:29):
He probably I started seeing him maybe nineteen seventy two,
nineteen seventy three. Around then he started showing up, but
very quickly he became sort of indispensable as the middleman
that he dealt with the pimps. He dealt with the
parents sometimes if they were pimps, he dealt with the children.
He arranged everything for the VIPs.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
He had no qualms.
Speaker 8 (10:54):
I got by, tried to survive a little bit by
connecting to the human inside and the man, well not
not with me whole.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
It wasn't possible. It was not that there's no human there,
but it was. He was so.
Speaker 8 (11:08):
Flat and his jokes were beyond cruel, you know, they
were so empty. But oh about the w h most
horrific things imaginable, So no way to get through.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
I couldn't get through to him, to have him as
a person.
Speaker 6 (11:26):
Was he also involved in the abuse.
Speaker 8 (11:28):
So I saw him more like a business person, arranging
everything until.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
For punishment the who has me.
Speaker 8 (11:40):
I'm the one who's being punished, But other children are
there as well, and so he is basically terrorizing us
children beyond the imaginable, in order to make sure that
we will never ask the clients and quotes anything the
(12:02):
perpetrators that we will never express any need of our own,
that we will just be there and just shut up
and just do what, you know, what we're meant to
do for them.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
In nineteen seventy three, ni who would have been thirty
two years old, Anika described a horrifying experience that she
says she suffered at his hands. What you're about to
hear is extremely disturbing.
Speaker 8 (12:29):
And Nihu grabbed my arm like that and twisted it,
and then he put a cigarette out on my arm,
which is this scar right here. And I want to
show you because when you see it like this, it's
circular because he had my arm like that. But when
you stretch the arm out, as you can see, it's not.
(12:50):
It's a line stretches out. I was taken away into
a separate little room, a secret room, I think, and tortured,
and four I think four children who were also like
myself in this network were taken.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Also and had to torture me.
Speaker 8 (13:15):
So I was laid out and strapped down, and then
he who forced those children to torture me with various
There was a crate underneath this very large butcher's block
very old underneath was it like a crate, an apple
crate or something which which had various you know, he
(13:36):
gave a fish hook to one child, he gave a
screwdriver to another child, he gave a penknife to another child.
He gave well various things along during the time that
I was there, and you know, forced them to to
torture me, but clearly they did not want to do yes,
(13:57):
and he of course participated.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
He of course was doing it too.
Speaker 8 (14:00):
And I understand that people don't believe me, and I
don't take well. I understand it because I think that
if you allow this in, it's going to challenge your
worldview potentially very strongly. You're going to say the world
is absolutely not what I thought it was, and you
(14:21):
may sink into despair or a depression from allowing this
reality in. So ultimately people have to do their own
work in order to accept that.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
This is true and it is not.
Speaker 8 (14:37):
It may seem really hopeless when you allow it in,
but it really is for the betterment of humanity to
go through that phase yourself and to allow that pain in.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Anaka's point about allowing this reality into one's worldview resonates
with me. Facing the reality of child's sex abuse is
so horrific and disturbing that most of us tend to
just block it out of our thought plane. However, it
happens every single day, and ignoring it only helps to
perpetuate this awful perversion. Michelle Nihull's name has continued to
(15:21):
pop up over and over again in this affair from
several different accusers. To dig deeper, I spoke with one
of the key journalists who initially investigated his possible involvement
with Regina Loof and the other ex witnesses, Marie Jeanne
van Hayswick.
Speaker 9 (15:37):
We realized quite quickly that Nil was involved with a
lot of fraud before he was arrested in ninety six.
It was a big surprise that he had never been
judged for the cases in the eighties. It wasn't until
(15:58):
he was arrested in ninety six that he was actually
convicted for these past fraud cases.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
When who was arrested in nineteen ninety six under suspicion
of involvement with the Truth crimes, it was discovered that
he had been investigated for a fraud case in nineteen
eighty nine, but that charges had never been brought.
Speaker 9 (16:19):
Some people said, why is it that Nil has stopped
being judged in those cases? That's very strange. So we
discovered but later that the judge for those cases was
Jean Marchvanespin. Is this the explanation because we discover later
(16:42):
that the Jean Marchvanespin has a lot of things with
n Michelle Hue and his ex wife. Abut the sister
of the judge is the godmother of Niel's son. That's
very strange. The cases had been placed at the bottom
(17:05):
of a trower and inure by Judge van Aspin. If
he had not been arrested, Nil would never be judged
for those case.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Marie Jeanne is pointing out that the judge van Espin
was in a difficult position from the start, as it
could appear that he didn't pursue charges that should have
already been brought against Mihul for fraud. This is the
same judge who was originally responsible for the infamous Champaignner
cold case. So when Regina Loof's interrogation pointed investigators back
(17:40):
to this case, it went back to Judge van Espin,
who quickly moved to try to shut it down. The
ex gendarme Amy Bill, who was taken off of the
Regina Loof case, still insists to this day that Judge
Van Espen closed them down to protect Michelle Nihul.
Speaker 9 (17:58):
So when the case of the Champaigner was open again,
Sean McVan spent so immediately that new and BUTI were
named by Regina Luche And I suppose he was in
danger because if those links were discovered by the the gendarme,
(18:23):
why didn't he tell those things sooner? So I think
it was difficult for him to admit. I published a
paper who proved that he was the lawyer of Anibouti
in the year eighty three, and a few days later
(18:46):
he decided to resign.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
I was able to track down the award winning journalist
Alanka Frankiel, who made a documentary about Belgium's X files
for the BBC and wrote incisively about the affair in
the Guardian newspaper. During her reporting, she actually met with
me who interviewed him well.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
I initially was sent over just after nine to eleven
to have a look into this bizarre story. Then the
BBC decided to commission the film, so one needed to
be very very careful not to get distracted from the
main core of the story, which was to determine whether
(19:30):
it was true as the authorities claimed that Dutrue was
acting alone, or whether he was part of a network
which was being protected or covered up by those authorities.
And pretty early on the evidence brought me to the
associates of Dutrue, which included Weinstein, who by then I
(19:55):
think was dead, Liliev, who I think by then at
that time was.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
In jail, and.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Michelle Nihoul, who was regarded as possibly the fixer and
the person who had commissioned to true to kidnap girls
for others to use. So we interviewed various survivors and victims,
(20:28):
one of whom mentioned Nihul. He'd been in trouble for
various crimes. He'd spent some time in jail, but when
I invited him us to meet me, it took a while,
as far as I remember, but he agreed and we
met in a restaurant and he walked in on crutches.
(20:50):
He'd had some kind of I think medical treatment. He
was a smallish, fat man, rather sweaty, but very enthusiastic
to meet me and my team, my producer, and he
bustled in and wrought I am the monster of Belgium.
It was a kind of a joke, I think he thought,
(21:11):
and he was sort of enjoying the fact that we
had sought him because of that, that he was the
monster of Belgium. He was quite happy to say that,
of course, he denied any involvement in the crimes, but
he also said that he didn't think he would ever
come to court, no jury would ever be asked to
(21:35):
decide whether he was guilty or innocent, because he claimed
that if that happened, he would name names, and too
many important people would be exposed, so that the entire
establishment in Belgium would ensure that he was never brought
to trial. After he'd told me all this, I had
asked whether he would consider doing an interview with us
(21:58):
on camera, and he started to sort of be a
bit playful and flirtatious and started to tickle me and
started to push me over, and I've suddenly found myself
sort of struggling to stay upright because he was pretty
well on top of me in the booth in the
restaurant where we were, and I had to push him off.
I had to appeal to my colleague to help me
(22:20):
get him off me, and that once they'd done that,
he announced that, yes, you were doing an interview, but
for one thousand pounds I think it was, and I
had to decline because we don't pay for interviews, and
to be honest, I was pretty pleased to say goodbye.
(22:42):
I think one of the most confusing aspects of this
film and this story was that there was a lot
of circumstantial evidence, a lot of horror, a lot of
emotion attached to the events that had taken place, not
just the killing of the young children or the killing
(23:02):
of the older girls, the discovery of the two girls
who were discovered alive, but also the number of people
somehow circulating around this story who met their deaths very
early in a mysterious way. I think, whether nine or
ten people. And of course it's a very difficult thing.
(23:23):
You can't prove those links. But it felt extremely suspicious
that so many people associated with the case were being
wiped out. So wherever you went, nothing squared. But the
problem with it was that there was a lot that
was inconclusive, and therefore, when you obviously finish filming after
(23:47):
your time is up and you don't have an open
and shutcase. It's quite frustrating, and it's interesting that all
these years later, this case is still in a sense unresolved.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
There's another interesting detail again, linking Nicoll with a horrifying
champignonair case from the eighties. It's something almost no one
knows about, even people with deep knowledge of the case.
After the gruesome murder of Christine Vanez, police found letters
she had exchanged with a man named Pascal la Marque,
who she'd met on a train shortly before her murder.
(24:31):
Marie Jeanne explains Pascal.
Speaker 9 (24:34):
La Marque is another strange character in the entourage of
Christine Vanis, the victim of the murder of the Champignie.
It seems that they met on the train. It was
in the fall of eighty three, a few months before
(24:57):
Christine's death. At that time, Lamarque was under a conviction
that sent him to prison. So it changes a dozen
letters they only met one time.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
It seems much attention was paid to these letters between
Christine and Pascal Lamarque because he was a known criminal
with a long rap sheet. In the letters, Christine writes
about having a difficult time and that she was going
to leave and change her life, and she wrote, quote,
I beg you please don't ask me where I'm going,
(25:33):
why I'm going, and why I won't be able to
write you anymore unquote. Pascal Lamarque was in prison at
the time she was murdered, so he was ruled out
as a suspect.
Speaker 9 (25:44):
But what do we discover then? Pascal Lamarck was in
fact a relation of Michelle Nioul. His name appears in
a confidential Belgian state security document which exposes the connections
of Michelle Newell and Anibouti. And the criminal record of
(26:07):
Pascal lamarch is the longest of all the people mentioned
in this list. Eleven conviction for theft with violence, rape
of miners and so on. So we had some exchange
with Pascal Lamarck in the the years ninety eight, and
(26:31):
he said, of course, he said he has nothing to
do with Christine's death. He was in prison, and he
said he remembered maybe Christine matt Nihull in the radio
radioactivity where new work at the time.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Altho only who evaded justice for his presumed role in
the True Affair and other sex trafficking accusations. I would
have liked to question him directly about all this, but
unfortunately he died in twenty nineteen of natural causes at
the age of seventy eight years old. Examining Nihul's possible
(27:09):
involvement with this affair is nonetheless still important because, as
I've said many times by now, he represents a potential
link to a wider network. If the testimonies of Regina
aloof Ana Calucas and several other ex witnesses are true,
he was a mid level broker in something much larger.
(27:29):
Although a larger cover up and conspiracy may never be proven,
there are definitely lower level accomplices that have never been
brought to justice. The balding man in his fifties who
participated with Detrue in the rape of the university student
from Brussels back in the nineteen eighties. The mystery surrounding
the driver of the Redford Fiesta and the owner of
(27:52):
the Hotel Brazil who vanished and hasn't been seen in decades.
After researching and reporting on this case for over two
two years, like many other people who studied this affair,
I simply cannot accept the official narrative. Where there's smoke,
there's fire, and there's way too much smoke surrounding this
(28:13):
affair to chalk it up to police and competence and
a large group of witnesses all supposedly lying about similar things.
On the season finale of La Monstre, I'll dig into
what can still be done as we make efforts to
tie up loose ends.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
So in the two case, there is a police report
stating the fact that twenty six unknown DNA profiles were established, and.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
I'll travel from Belgium to Brazil to Germany to track
down a suspect who didn't want to be found explicate
I guess.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
Bob Malon.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Le Monstra is a production of Tenderfoot TV and iHeart Radio,
hosted and executive produced by me Matt Graves, produced by
Thomas Resimont of Bubble Sound. Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay
are executive producers on the behalf of Tenderfoot TV with
producer Makeup and Vanity Set. Matt Frederick and Alex Williams
are executive producers on the behalf of iHeart Radio with
(29:26):
producer Trevor Young. Original music by Jay Ragsdale, sound design
by Cooper Skinner and Thomas Resimont, Mixed and mastered by
Cooper Skinner cover design by Trevor Eiler. La Monstra includes
archival audio from SONYMA, RTBF Archives and CNN Archives. Special
thanks to Back Media and Marketing Station sixteen, Jean Savigna,
(29:50):
and the teams at iHeart Radio and tenderfoot TV. Find
us on social media at Monster Underscore pod. For more
podcasts from iHeart, rag Radio or Tenderfoot TV, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows,
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely
those of the podcast author or individuals participating in the podcast,
and do not represent those of iHeartMedia, Tenderfoot TV, or
their employees. This podcast also contains subject matter which may
not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Michel Pirot, nightclub owner, promised to make revelations about Julian
Melissa's kidnappings, murdered shortly afterwards in a parking lot. Jean
Paul Tamigneaux, acquaintance of de True active in Charlewaugh Carr
theft ring, told a friend he'd received important information about
the kidnappings. Disappeared shortly afterwards in nineteen ninety five. His
(00:46):
severed foot was found a year later in a river.
The rest of the body was never recovered. Bruno taglia Ferro,
acquaintance of the True active in Charlewaiugh car theft ring wife,
said he was asked to get rid of the car
used to kidnap U Melissa and that he feared for
his life. Died under mysterious circumstances. Body was exhumed on
order of Judge Conrad for testing posthumous autopsy. Death declared
(01:11):
as murdered by poisoning. Fabien jo Bards, wife of Bruno
taglia Ferro, claimed to have found important documents related to
her husband's murder. Burned to death in a bed soaked
in methanol. Declared a suicide. Ghi Gobel Gendarmes and Garsolonna,
one of the very few gendarmes to obtain the confidence
(01:31):
of the parents of Julian Melissa, found dead with a
bullet in his head the day Operation Othello started. Declared
a suicide. These are just five of the over twenty
mysterious deaths surrounding the the true affair, and additional reasons
why many believe there are still powerful people involved who've
never been brought to justice.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Champsychopats is somebody who understood emotions, and I told them
it is very exceptional that somebody abducts two children at
the same time.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
Should have been the end of it in nineteen eighty six,
but my god, it was just a beginning.
Speaker 5 (02:15):
I think Belgium was a paralyzed for perverts in those days.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Welcome to la monstre. I'm your host. Matt Graves, after
an investigation plagued by incompetence and cover ups, and a
trial where the judge purposely avoided elements pointing to a
larger conspiracy mark. The true was sentenced to life without parole,
Michelle Martin to thirty years, l Lievre to twenty five years,
(02:49):
and Michelle Nihul only got five years for criminal association
and drug trafficking. The trial of the century was over,
but the country would never be the same. The Gendarmerie
was discontinued as an institution and Belgian law enforcement was
completely restructured as a direct result of this affair, basically
(03:10):
the equivalent of shutting down the FBI in the United States.
If you can imagine that several ministers, police officers, and
magistrates either resigned, were fired, or quit their jobs, and
millions of Belgians felt their country had covered up or
even participated in the worst crimes imaginable. The aftermath of
(03:31):
the trial would provide little opportunity for healing, as the
judicial system would continue to fail the victims and their families.
Michel n Whoul, after serving just a third of his
sentence for drug trafficking, was paroled in two thousand and five.
In twenty twelve, Michen Martin was given early release as well,
paroled after just serving sixteen years of a thirty year sentence.
(03:55):
Although the conditions of her parole were strict, the public
was outraged, again, taking to the streets and protest. The victims'
families were also stunned about her early release. The father
of Anne, Paul.
Speaker 6 (04:12):
Marschall, thirty year for me was thirty years. It was
very difficult to accept. But now I have to accept
sixteen years, so you can imagine what I am feeling.
Speaker 7 (04:28):
Michelle Martin says that after years of psychiatric help, she
is free of Mark d' true's influence. The crimes the
pair committed made this country question itself and it is
questioning itself again now as she enjoys freedom. Emma Murphy
ITV News, Brussels.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
In twenty nineteen, Michel Lalieva was released from prison despite
appeals from victims families and a protest in Brussels dubbed
the Black March. He served twenty three of his twenty
five year sentence. After his release, he moved to a
neighborhood in Brussels, where it didn't take long for him
to get recognized. According to reports, he was beaten up
(05:07):
by a group of neighborhood kids. When Michele Martin was
released in twenty twelve, the terms were that she would
be confined to the Clarisse Convent in Malonne, near Namur
in the south of Belgium. After serving ten years under
strict supervision, she would be eligible for full release with
no conditions. Just over a month ago, as the first
(05:29):
episodes of La Monceau were published, Michele Martin was released
from the monastery with all conditions lifted. She is a
completely free woman today. Jean Lambreck's the father of Eefia,
said quote, it's clear that she's guilty of much more
than what the official and public version wants us to believe.
(05:49):
She actively participated in several rapes by drugging the victims.
She had a serious rap sheet before she even committed
these crimes, yet she was still released early. This situation
is very depressing. Unquote. Mark the True, still serving a
life sentence, applied for conditional release in twenty twelve. It
(06:11):
was rejected, but in twenty thirteen he appealed the decision.
His mother, who hadn't been heard from since the trial,
spoke up again, saying quote Mark is not ready to
be released because he's still trying to blame others for
what he did. I'm certain that he will start again.
He has no sense of reality. He's a repeat offender
(06:33):
in his soul, as he's already proven throughout his life unquote.
Shortly after her statement, the tru's appeal was rejected. In
twenty nineteen, he again applied for conditional release, which required
an examination by a psychiatrists. When the psychiatric report concluded
that the True remained dangerous and had a psychopathic profile,
(06:55):
his lawyer, Bruno Dallier dropped the parole request, saying quote,
I must postpone my plans because proposing a credible reclassification
plan with this diagnosis, I really don't see who will accept.
Dallier also made it clear that he would not give
up on his efforts to free the True, as I
(07:18):
continued to investigate the loose ends of the de True affair.
The decades long saga has reached the present day and
were now breaking new ground. A listener of La Monstre
in Switzerland reached out to tell me about a woman
named Annika Lucas who shared her experiences with child sex
trafficking in Belgium in a book published just a few
(07:39):
months ago. I was able to interview her when she
came to Europe recently. Annika explained to me that she
left Belgium in the nineteen eighties to go to the
United States to escape a child trafficking network. She claims
that this network involved Michel Nihoul. I've been able to
confirm some parts of her story. I know that she's
(08:02):
indeed from Belgium, and that she was certainly sexually abused
as a child, and that she escaped to America, where
she's been living since the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 8 (08:12):
Yes, I was born in Belgium, in Brussels, and my
mother was single, and when I was three she married
someone in Flanders. Now she abused me from childhood. I
started first with the and her husband, who had been
taking me on little outings.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
There were always other children there.
Speaker 8 (08:33):
They took me the first time into what was an orgy,
and that was a horrific experience. I was also that
same night very graphically threatened to make sure I would
never speak up.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
I wanted to speak to Anika because she claims to
have direct experience with Michelle, who way back in the
nineteen seventies.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
The boss of the network.
Speaker 8 (09:03):
He gifted me to an international networker and that man
ended up taking an interest in me and taking me
with him to train me. So I was nine years
old when this happened, and taken him to different places
in on the East Coast in the United States to
(09:25):
learn about that world. That year s nineteen seventy two,
taken to different places, especially Germany. But still even though
I was gone the entire summer of nineteen seventy two,
I still would come back and go to school.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
I was from then on used in the.
Speaker 8 (09:44):
Network by Belgian network, mostly for the VIP guests that
would come from then on. So nineteen seventy two to
nineteen seventy four, when I was rescued by someone from
the inside, it was really a last minute decision on
his part.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
It wasn't meant to happen.
Speaker 8 (10:05):
I was in fact taken away to be tortured. That
the torture was led by the person I knew as
the middleman for a lot of the orgies, someone who
was very happy, the brown nose with the VIPs the network, Michelle,
who was in charge.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
I was given to him. He was the middleman, so
he was rather new.
Speaker 8 (10:29):
He probably I started seeing him maybe nineteen seventy two,
nineteen seventy three. Around then he started showing up, but
very quickly he became sort of indispensable as the middleman
that he dealt with the pimps. He dealt with the
parents sometimes if they were pimps, he dealt with the children.
He arranged everything for the VIPs.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
He had no qualms.
Speaker 8 (10:54):
I got by, tried to survive a little bit by
connecting to the human inside and the man, well not
not with me whole.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
It wasn't possible. It was not that there's no human there,
but it was. He was so.
Speaker 8 (11:08):
Flat and his jokes were beyond cruel, you know, they
were so empty. But oh about the w h most
horrific things imaginable, So no way to get through.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
I couldn't get through to him, to have him as
a person.
Speaker 6 (11:26):
Was he also involved in the abuse.
Speaker 8 (11:28):
So I saw him more like a business person, arranging
everything until.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
For punishment the who has me.
Speaker 8 (11:40):
I'm the one who's being punished, But other children are
there as well, and so he is basically terrorizing us
children beyond the imaginable, in order to make sure that
we will never ask the clients and quotes anything the
(12:02):
perpetrators that we will never express any need of our own,
that we will just be there and just shut up
and just do what, you know, what we're meant to
do for them.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
In nineteen seventy three, ni who would have been thirty
two years old, Anika described a horrifying experience that she
says she suffered at his hands. What you're about to
hear is extremely disturbing.
Speaker 8 (12:29):
And Nihu grabbed my arm like that and twisted it,
and then he put a cigarette out on my arm,
which is this scar right here. And I want to
show you because when you see it like this, it's
circular because he had my arm like that. But when
you stretch the arm out, as you can see, it's not.
(12:50):
It's a line stretches out. I was taken away into
a separate little room, a secret room, I think, and tortured,
and four I think four children who were also like
myself in this network were taken.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Also and had to torture me.
Speaker 8 (13:15):
So I was laid out and strapped down, and then
he who forced those children to torture me with various
There was a crate underneath this very large butcher's block
very old underneath was it like a crate, an apple
crate or something which which had various you know, he
(13:36):
gave a fish hook to one child, he gave a
screwdriver to another child, he gave a penknife to another child.
He gave well various things along during the time that
I was there, and you know, forced them to to
torture me, but clearly they did not want to do yes,
(13:57):
and he of course participated.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
He of course was doing it too.
Speaker 8 (14:00):
And I understand that people don't believe me, and I
don't take well. I understand it because I think that
if you allow this in, it's going to challenge your
worldview potentially very strongly. You're going to say the world
is absolutely not what I thought it was, and you
(14:21):
may sink into despair or a depression from allowing this
reality in. So ultimately people have to do their own
work in order to accept that.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
This is true and it is not.
Speaker 8 (14:37):
It may seem really hopeless when you allow it in,
but it really is for the betterment of humanity to
go through that phase yourself and to allow that pain in.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Anaka's point about allowing this reality into one's worldview resonates
with me. Facing the reality of child's sex abuse is
so horrific and disturbing that most of us tend to
just block it out of our thought plane. However, it
happens every single day, and ignoring it only helps to
perpetuate this awful perversion. Michelle Nihull's name has continued to
(15:21):
pop up over and over again in this affair from
several different accusers. To dig deeper, I spoke with one
of the key journalists who initially investigated his possible involvement
with Regina Loof and the other ex witnesses, Marie Jeanne
van Hayswick.
Speaker 9 (15:37):
We realized quite quickly that Nil was involved with a
lot of fraud before he was arrested in ninety six.
It was a big surprise that he had never been
judged for the cases in the eighties. It wasn't until
(15:58):
he was arrested in ninety six that he was actually
convicted for these past fraud cases.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
When who was arrested in nineteen ninety six under suspicion
of involvement with the Truth crimes, it was discovered that
he had been investigated for a fraud case in nineteen
eighty nine, but that charges had never been brought.
Speaker 9 (16:19):
Some people said, why is it that Nil has stopped
being judged in those cases? That's very strange. So we
discovered but later that the judge for those cases was
Jean Marchvanespin. Is this the explanation because we discover later
(16:42):
that the Jean Marchvanespin has a lot of things with
n Michelle Hue and his ex wife. Abut the sister
of the judge is the godmother of Niel's son. That's
very strange. The cases had been placed at the bottom
(17:05):
of a trower and inure by Judge van Aspin. If
he had not been arrested, Nil would never be judged
for those case.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Marie Jeanne is pointing out that the judge van Espin
was in a difficult position from the start, as it
could appear that he didn't pursue charges that should have
already been brought against Mihul for fraud. This is the
same judge who was originally responsible for the infamous Champaignner
cold case. So when Regina Loof's interrogation pointed investigators back
(17:40):
to this case, it went back to Judge van Espin,
who quickly moved to try to shut it down. The
ex gendarme Amy Bill, who was taken off of the
Regina Loof case, still insists to this day that Judge
Van Espen closed them down to protect Michelle Nihul.
Speaker 9 (17:58):
So when the case of the Champaigner was open again,
Sean McVan spent so immediately that new and BUTI were
named by Regina Luche And I suppose he was in
danger because if those links were discovered by the the gendarme,
(18:23):
why didn't he tell those things sooner? So I think
it was difficult for him to admit. I published a
paper who proved that he was the lawyer of Anibouti
in the year eighty three, and a few days later
(18:46):
he decided to resign.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
I was able to track down the award winning journalist
Alanka Frankiel, who made a documentary about Belgium's X files
for the BBC and wrote incisively about the affair in
the Guardian newspaper. During her reporting, she actually met with
me who interviewed him well.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
I initially was sent over just after nine to eleven
to have a look into this bizarre story. Then the
BBC decided to commission the film, so one needed to
be very very careful not to get distracted from the
main core of the story, which was to determine whether
(19:30):
it was true as the authorities claimed that Dutrue was
acting alone, or whether he was part of a network
which was being protected or covered up by those authorities.
And pretty early on the evidence brought me to the
associates of Dutrue, which included Weinstein, who by then I
(19:55):
think was dead, Liliev, who I think by then at
that time was.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
In jail, and.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Michelle Nihoul, who was regarded as possibly the fixer and
the person who had commissioned to true to kidnap girls
for others to use. So we interviewed various survivors and victims,
(20:28):
one of whom mentioned Nihul. He'd been in trouble for
various crimes. He'd spent some time in jail, but when
I invited him us to meet me, it took a while,
as far as I remember, but he agreed and we
met in a restaurant and he walked in on crutches.
(20:50):
He'd had some kind of I think medical treatment. He
was a smallish, fat man, rather sweaty, but very enthusiastic
to meet me and my team, my producer, and he
bustled in and wrought I am the monster of Belgium.
It was a kind of a joke, I think he thought,
(21:11):
and he was sort of enjoying the fact that we
had sought him because of that, that he was the
monster of Belgium. He was quite happy to say that,
of course, he denied any involvement in the crimes, but
he also said that he didn't think he would ever
come to court, no jury would ever be asked to
(21:35):
decide whether he was guilty or innocent, because he claimed
that if that happened, he would name names, and too
many important people would be exposed, so that the entire
establishment in Belgium would ensure that he was never brought
to trial. After he'd told me all this, I had
asked whether he would consider doing an interview with us
(21:58):
on camera, and he started to sort of be a
bit playful and flirtatious and started to tickle me and
started to push me over, and I've suddenly found myself
sort of struggling to stay upright because he was pretty
well on top of me in the booth in the
restaurant where we were, and I had to push him off.
I had to appeal to my colleague to help me
(22:20):
get him off me, and that once they'd done that,
he announced that, yes, you were doing an interview, but
for one thousand pounds I think it was, and I
had to decline because we don't pay for interviews, and
to be honest, I was pretty pleased to say goodbye.
(22:42):
I think one of the most confusing aspects of this
film and this story was that there was a lot
of circumstantial evidence, a lot of horror, a lot of
emotion attached to the events that had taken place, not
just the killing of the young children or the killing
(23:02):
of the older girls, the discovery of the two girls
who were discovered alive, but also the number of people
somehow circulating around this story who met their deaths very
early in a mysterious way. I think, whether nine or
ten people. And of course it's a very difficult thing.
(23:23):
You can't prove those links. But it felt extremely suspicious
that so many people associated with the case were being
wiped out. So wherever you went, nothing squared. But the
problem with it was that there was a lot that
was inconclusive, and therefore, when you obviously finish filming after
(23:47):
your time is up and you don't have an open
and shutcase. It's quite frustrating, and it's interesting that all
these years later, this case is still in a sense unresolved.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
There's another interesting detail again, linking Nicoll with a horrifying
champignonair case from the eighties. It's something almost no one
knows about, even people with deep knowledge of the case.
After the gruesome murder of Christine Vanez, police found letters
she had exchanged with a man named Pascal la Marque,
who she'd met on a train shortly before her murder.
(24:31):
Marie Jeanne explains Pascal.
Speaker 9 (24:34):
La Marque is another strange character in the entourage of
Christine Vanis, the victim of the murder of the Champignie.
It seems that they met on the train. It was
in the fall of eighty three, a few months before
(24:57):
Christine's death. At that time, Lamarque was under a conviction
that sent him to prison. So it changes a dozen
letters they only met one time.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
It seems much attention was paid to these letters between
Christine and Pascal Lamarque because he was a known criminal
with a long rap sheet. In the letters, Christine writes
about having a difficult time and that she was going
to leave and change her life, and she wrote, quote,
I beg you please don't ask me where I'm going,
(25:33):
why I'm going, and why I won't be able to
write you anymore unquote. Pascal Lamarque was in prison at
the time she was murdered, so he was ruled out
as a suspect.
Speaker 9 (25:44):
But what do we discover then? Pascal Lamarck was in
fact a relation of Michelle Nioul. His name appears in
a confidential Belgian state security document which exposes the connections
of Michelle Newell and Anibouti. And the criminal record of
(26:07):
Pascal lamarch is the longest of all the people mentioned
in this list. Eleven conviction for theft with violence, rape
of miners and so on. So we had some exchange
with Pascal Lamarck in the the years ninety eight, and
(26:31):
he said, of course, he said he has nothing to
do with Christine's death. He was in prison, and he
said he remembered maybe Christine matt Nihull in the radio
radioactivity where new work at the time.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Altho only who evaded justice for his presumed role in
the True Affair and other sex trafficking accusations. I would
have liked to question him directly about all this, but
unfortunately he died in twenty nineteen of natural causes at
the age of seventy eight years old. Examining Nihul's possible
(27:09):
involvement with this affair is nonetheless still important because, as
I've said many times by now, he represents a potential
link to a wider network. If the testimonies of Regina
aloof Ana Calucas and several other ex witnesses are true,
he was a mid level broker in something much larger.
(27:29):
Although a larger cover up and conspiracy may never be proven,
there are definitely lower level accomplices that have never been
brought to justice. The balding man in his fifties who
participated with Detrue in the rape of the university student
from Brussels back in the nineteen eighties. The mystery surrounding
the driver of the Redford Fiesta and the owner of
(27:52):
the Hotel Brazil who vanished and hasn't been seen in decades.
After researching and reporting on this case for over two
two years, like many other people who studied this affair,
I simply cannot accept the official narrative. Where there's smoke,
there's fire, and there's way too much smoke surrounding this
(28:13):
affair to chalk it up to police and competence and
a large group of witnesses all supposedly lying about similar things.
On the season finale of La Monstre, I'll dig into
what can still be done as we make efforts to
tie up loose ends.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
So in the two case, there is a police report
stating the fact that twenty six unknown DNA profiles were established, and.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
I'll travel from Belgium to Brazil to Germany to track
down a suspect who didn't want to be found explicate
I guess.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
Bob Malon.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Le Monstra is a production of Tenderfoot TV and iHeart Radio,
hosted and executive produced by me Matt Graves, produced by
Thomas Resimont of Bubble Sound. Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay
are executive producers on the behalf of Tenderfoot TV with
producer Makeup and Vanity Set. Matt Frederick and Alex Williams
are executive producers on the behalf of iHeart Radio with
(29:26):
producer Trevor Young. Original music by Jay Ragsdale, sound design
by Cooper Skinner and Thomas Resimont, Mixed and mastered by
Cooper Skinner cover design by Trevor Eiler. La Monstra includes
archival audio from SONYMA, RTBF Archives and CNN Archives. Special
thanks to Back Media and Marketing Station sixteen, Jean Savigna,
(29:50):
and the teams at iHeart Radio and tenderfoot TV. Find
us on social media at Monster Underscore pod. For more
podcasts from iHeart, rag Radio or Tenderfoot TV, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows,
Host
Matt Graves
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