Dutroux Case: What Has Changed in 30 Years to Protect Children
Thirty years after the white march, Child Focus and the federal police have fundamentally reformed the search for missing children in Belgium.
Thirty years after the white march: assessment of reforms for child protection
On 20 October 1996, 300,000 Belgians took to the streets of Brussels during the white march, shocked by the Dutroux case and angry at the failings of police and the judiciary. According to rtl.be, Nel Broothaerts, director-general of Child Focus, and journalist Dominique Demoulin drew up, thirty years later, an assessment of the transformations carried out since.
Professionalised care and support
The search for missing children has been profoundly restructured since the 1990s. The federal police and Child Focus have developed specific expertise to support investigations. The organisation is now present day and night alongside the families of victims. "When a child goes missing, those are the most atrocious moments in a parent's life," emphasises Nel Broothaerts.
At the time of the Dutroux case, it was the parents themselves who photocopied photos of Julie and Mélissa to display them in shops in the neighbourhood, recalls Dominique Demoulin. Child Focus and the missing persons unit now take charge of all this work of distribution and coordination.
Unprecedented technical and legal tools
On the technological front, Belgian motorways, which were almost entirely without cameras in 1996, are today equipped with ANPR cameras capable of reading and recording number plates in real time.
The journalist also points out a structural malfunction of the time: "It was the gendarmerie that wanted to keep this case to itself, that wanted to act alone and that did not share this information." The name Dutroux had appeared very early in the investigation. The law now requires police services to share their information with each other, an obligation that did not exist in 1996.
A reoffence judged less likely, but not impossible
The question of a comparable new case remains open. Nel Broothaerts responds cautiously: "I sincerely hope that can never happen again. But you can never look inside the head of someone who wants to harm our children."
Dominique Demoulin, for her part, judges the services "much more professional today" than at the time of the events. The reforms following the white march have profoundly transformed the way Belgium manages child disappearances — without, however, guaranteeing that such a tragedy could not happen again.
Source: Google News BE FR