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Michelle Martin in custody
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Who is Marc Dutroux’s ex-wife Michelle Martin, and is she still in prison?

What was child-murderer Marc Dutroux's ex-wife’s role in his crimes?

Content Warning: This article contains references to child abuse and murder, please take care while reading.

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In 2004, Belgian Marc Dutroux was sentenced to life in prison for raping and murdering several young girls. Dutroux’s then-wife, Michelle Martin, had a hand in those crimes. Here’s the price she paid for her complicity, and where she is now.

It’s unclear how many children Dutroux, a lifelong criminal, abused and killed. He is known, however, to have abducted, assaulted, and murdered a number of girls in the 1990s, some as young as 8. He also reportedly sold children into sex trafficking. While it’s hard to imagine that anyone could be married to someone capable of such acts, Dutroux was married to Martin at the time, according to The New York Times.

And not only were Dutroux and Martin married, she, too, was convicted for the part she played in the deaths of two of Dutroux’s youngest victims, and for aiding and abetting several of Dutroux’s other offenses. As a result, Martin received a thirty years prison sentence for the starvation deaths of two girls, both age 8, in an underground cell on one of Dutroux’s properties.

Martin only served about half her sentence

Marc Dutroux’s ex-wife, Michelle Martin, only served about half of her prison sentence, however. According to The Guardian, she was released in 2012, after her fourth parole attempt. As a condition, Martin agreed to spend 10 years in a convent, an unusual court decision that deepened widespread suspicion that members of the Belgian government and Belgian authorities were complicit in a Dutroux coverup.

In light of what she and her husband did, Martin’s release was understandably controversial for the victim’s families and the Belgian public, and many in Belgium protested the ruling, The New York Times reported. Meanwhile, those involved in the case unsuccessfully appealed the decision.

On the choice to take Martin into the Clarisse convent near Brussels, the Mother Superior told The Guardian, “We were shocked by the terrible suffering of the victims and their families, who have gone through hell.” But, she added, “Martin is a human being capable, like all of us, of the worst and the best.”

Dutroux and Martin divorced in 2003

By the time Michelle Martin was released, Dutroux and Martin had divorced, and Martin claimed to be a changed woman. The victims’ families, however, weren’t convinced. Jean-Denis Lejeune, a father of a Dutroux and Martin starvation victim, told a Belgian newspaper, “For me, Michelle Martin is as much responsible for the death of my daughter as Dutroux.” Martin, however, said, “her guilt will follow her to the grave” (via The Times).

Martin testified at her trial that Dutroux had asked her to feed the children locked in an underground cell while he served time for an unrelated offense in the 1990s, but she neglected to do so for fear of what she might find. With the children dying beneath her feet, Martin reportedly kept her own dog well fed. As of 2023, Martin reportedly left the convent in 2022, according to Belgian news outlet VRT. It’s unclear what happened to her after she did.

If you know someone suffering from sexual violence, contact RAINN or the National Sexual Abuse Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.


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Author
Image of William Kennedy
William Kennedy
William Kennedy is a full-time freelance content writer and journalist in Eugene, OR. William covered true crime, among other topics for Grunge.com. He also writes about live music for the Eugene Weekly, where his beat also includes arts and culture, food, and current events. He lives with his wife, daughter, and two cats who all politely accommodate his obsession with Doctor Who and The New Yorker.