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@ -9,27 +9,40 @@ summary: "Brussels teenager whose burned body was found in 1984 at a disused mus
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died: 1984
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location: "Auderghem, Belgium"
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created: 2026-05-14
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updated: 2026-09-22
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updated: 2026-10-09
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---
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Christine Van Hees was killed in February 1984 and found bound and partly burned in the disused mushroom farm (champignonnière) at Auderghem, on the outskirts of Brussels. The murder was not solved, and the file stayed with the Brussels investigating judge [[Jean-Claude Van Espen]].[^2][^4] She was sixteen.[^5]
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Christine Van Hees was killed in February 1984 and found bound and partly burned in the disused mushroom farm (champignonnière) at Auderghem, on the outskirts of Brussels. The murder was not solved, and the file stayed with the Brussels investigating judge [[Jean-Claude Van Espen]].[^1][^2] She was sixteen.[^3]
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### The X1 Testimony
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In 1996 the witness X1, [[Regina Louf]], told the Neufchâteau investigators of the murder of a girl she knew as "Chrissie." "It was a sort of bondage," she later said, "so her legs and her hands and her throat were connected with the same rope, and so when she moved she strangled herself." She said that [[Jean-Michel Nihoul]] took part in the killing and that [[Marc Dutroux]] watched; Nihoul denied it.[^3] She also named [[Bernard Weinstein]] and the lawyer [[Michel Vander Elst]].[^1] The farm had since been demolished, but she described its wallpaper, sinks, hooks in the ceiling and a network of stairs and adjoining rooms. She also mentioned details that had never been made public, among them a metal pin in the dead girl's wrist.[^5] Rudi Hoskens, one of the officers assigned to re-examine the case, said: "She gave us some details that made us think it's impossible to give without having been there at that place." The son of the farm's former owner said: "I have never met Regina Louf. All I know is that she could not have described the house as well as she did unless she'd been there. It was two houses joined together in a strange way." The Prosecutor General of Liège, Anne Thily, told a reporter in 2002 that Louf was a fantasist who had invented everything.[^3]
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In 1996 the witness X1, [[Regina Louf]], told the Neufchâteau investigators of the murder of a girl she knew as "Chrissie." "It was a sort of bondage," she later said, "so her legs and her hands and her throat were connected with the same rope, and so when she moved she strangled herself." She said that [[Jean-Michel Nihoul]] took part in the killing and that [[Marc Dutroux]] watched; Nihoul denied it.[^4] She also named [[Bernard Weinstein]] and the lawyer [[Michel Vander Elst]].[^5] The farm had since been demolished, but she described its wallpaper, sinks, hooks in the ceiling and a network of stairs and adjoining rooms. She also mentioned details that had never been made public, among them a metal pin in the dead girl's wrist.[^3] Rudi Hoskens, one of the officers assigned to re-examine the case, said: "She gave us some details that made us think it's impossible to give without having been there at that place." The son of the farm's former owner said: "I have never met Regina Louf. All I know is that she could not have described the house as well as she did unless she'd been there. It was two houses joined together in a strange way." The Prosecutor General of Liège, Anne Thily, told a reporter in 2002 that Louf was a fantasist who had invented everything.[^4]
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Louf's account led the gendarme Aimé Bille to the old file, and he found that the earlier investigation under Van Espen had "multiple gaps."[^4] Van Hees had swum weekly at a pool above the premises of [[Radio Activité]], where Nihoul was active, and skated at Poseidon in Woluwe, which Dutroux also frequented.[^1]
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Louf's account led the gendarme Aimé Bille to the old file, and he found that the earlier investigation under Van Espen had "multiple gaps."[^2] Van Hees had swum weekly at a pool above the premises of [[Radio Activité]], where Nihoul was active, and skated at Poseidon in Woluwe, which Dutroux also frequented.[^5]
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The Senate proposal of October 9, 2000 states that one of X1's accounts led the investigators to an old file on Van Hees, who had been murdered and partly burned in the former mushroom farm at Auderghem, a murder never solved, and that the gendarme Aimé Bille, assigned to the file, found that the earlier inquiry under the investigating judge Jean-Claude Van Espen presented multiple gaps.[^6] The parliamentary commission's complementary report of February 16, 1998 records that an anonymous witness had associated Jean-Michel Nihoul and "A. Bouty" with an unsolved murder in the Brussels region on which Van Espen had led the inquiry in the 1980s; the commission's text does not name the victim in that passage.[^7] The commission also records that the Brussels district commander wrote to Van Espen on September 2, 1997 about a division of tasks among investigators for instruction 64/85.[^8]
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On October 21, 1998 the [[Chamber of Representatives]]' justice committee tabled motions after five interpellations. A recommendation signed by [[Gerolf Annemans]] asked the minister to press the college of prosecutors-general for an independent rereading of the files on the statements of the so-called X witnesses (among them Van Hees and Mazibas), separate from the Neufchâteau investigating judge and from the antenna head Duterme.[^9]
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[[La Libre Belgique]] reported in 2004 that on March 17, 2000 it became known that semen recovered from Van Hees's body had been analyzed and corresponded genetically neither to Nihoul nor to any known suspect in the Dutroux affair, a result the paper described as destroying the credit of X1 on the point.[^10] A [[Zembla]] programme of March 11, 2004 stated in its description that X1 had "daderkennis" (knowledge of the perpetrators) in the Van Hees and Dellaert cases and that the gendarmerie had been able to confirm much of what she said.[^11] [[Michel Clippe]], a former adjudant of the Brussels BSR, told La Dernière Heure in 2020 that he was able to verify a great deal of what she said.[^12]
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### The Investigating Judge
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The reopened file was returned to Van Espen at the end of January 1997. The Belgian parliamentary commission of inquiry recorded its astonishment at his "violent reaction" to contacts between its councillor-investigator and the Neufchâteau investigators, and his order of June 22, 1997, suspending all investigative acts by the team; it concluded that he had given "particular, in fact disproportionate, attention" to those contacts.[^2] In 2002 it was reported that a Belgian journalist had revealed his "close relationship" with Nihoul and his then wife: that as a lawyer he had represented Nihoul's wife, that his sister was godmother of Nihoul's child, and that he had resigned from the case in early 1998.[^3]
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The reopened file was returned to Van Espen at the end of January 1997. The Belgian parliamentary commission of inquiry recorded its astonishment at his "violent reaction" to contacts between its councillor-investigator and the Neufchâteau investigators, and his order of June 22, 1997, suspending all investigative acts by the team; it concluded that he had given "particular, in fact disproportionate, attention" to those contacts.[^1] In 2002 it was reported that a Belgian journalist had revealed his "close relationship" with Nihoul and his then wife: that as a lawyer he had represented Nihoul's wife, that his sister was godmother of Nihoul's child, and that he had resigned from the case in early 1998.[^4]
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On April 23, 1998, the prosecutors-general of Antwerp, Ghent and Brussels found that "no proof could be found that Regina Louf could make any contribution whatsoever to these investigations" and closed the related files, among them the reopened inquiries into the murders of Van Hees, [[Carine Dellaert]], [[Veronique Dubrulle]], [[Katrien de Cuyper]] and Hanim Ayse Mazibas.[^4]
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On April 23, 1998, the prosecutors-general of Antwerp, Ghent and Brussels found that "no proof could be found that Regina Louf could make any contribution whatsoever to these investigations" and closed the related files, among them the reopened inquiries into the murders of Van Hees, [[Carine Dellaert]], [[Veronique Dubrulle]], [[Katrien de Cuyper]] and Hanim Ayse Mazibas.[^2]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: "Who did not kill Christine Van Hees?" *De Morgen,* September 22, 1998.
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[^2]: Chambre des Représentants de Belgique. *Enquête parlementaire sur la manière dont l'enquête, dans ses volets policiers et judiciaires, a été menée dans l'affaire Dutroux-Nihoul et consorts,* rapport complémentaire, Doc. 713/8-96/97, February 16, 1998, chapter V; translated from the French. https://www.dekamer.be/kvvcr/pdf_sections/comm/dutroux/49K0713008.pdf
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[^3]: Frenkiel, Olenka. "Belgium's silent heart of darkness." *The Observer,* May 5, 2002. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/may/05/dutroux.featuresreview
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[^5]: Smoltczyk, Alexander. "Im Netz der Dossiers." *Der Spiegel,* no. 42/2001, October 14, 2001; translated from the German. https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/im-netz-der-dossiers-a-c9fe5b47-0002-0001-0000-000020353850 *The Observer* gives her age as fifteen in its account of Louf's description.
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[^4]: Sénat de Belgique. Proposition visant à instituer une commission d'enquête parlementaire chargée d'enquêter sur l'éloignement de deux enquêteurs de la cellule d'enquête bruxelloise « Neufchâteau », déposée par M. Frans Lozie, Doc. 2-563/1, October 9, 2000.
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[^1]: Chambre des Représentants de Belgique. *Enquête parlementaire sur la manière dont l'enquête, dans ses volets policiers et judiciaires, a été menée dans l'affaire Dutroux-Nihoul et consorts,* rapport complémentaire, Doc. 713/8-96/97, February 16, 1998, chapter V; translated from the French. https://www.dekamer.be/kvvcr/pdf_sections/comm/dutroux/49K0713008.pdf
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[^2]: Sénat de Belgique. Proposition visant à instituer une commission d'enquête parlementaire chargée d'enquêter sur l'éloignement de deux enquêteurs de la cellule d'enquête bruxelloise « Neufchâteau », déposée par M. Frans Lozie, Doc. 2-563/1, October 9, 2000.
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[^3]: Smoltczyk, Alexander. "Im Netz der Dossiers." *Der Spiegel,* no. 42/2001, October 14, 2001; translated from the German. https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/im-netz-der-dossiers-a-c9fe5b47-0002-0001-0000-000020353850 *The Observer* gives her age as fifteen in its account of Louf's description.
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[^4]: Frenkiel, Olenka. "Belgium's silent heart of darkness." *The Observer,* May 5, 2002. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/may/05/dutroux.featuresreview
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[^5]: "Who did not kill Christine Van Hees?" *De Morgen,* September 22, 1998.
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[^6]: Sénat de Belgique. Proposition visant à instituer une commission d'enquête parlementaire chargée d'enquêter sur l'éloignement de deux enquêteurs de la cellule d'enquête bruxelloise « Neufchâteau », déposée par M. Frans Lozie, Doc. 2-563/1, October 9, 2000, développements; translated from the French. https://www.senate.be/www/?MIval=/publications/viewPub.html&COLL=S&LEG=2&NR=563&VOLGNR=1&LANG=fr
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[^7]: Chambre des Représentants de Belgique. Enquête parlementaire sur la manière dont l'enquête, dans ses volets policiers et judiciaires, a été menée dans l'affaire Dutroux-Nihoul et consorts, rapport complémentaire, Doc. 713/8-96/97, February 16, 1998, chapter V, p. 150; translated from the French. https://www.dekamer.be/FLWB/PDF/49/0713/49K0713008.pdf
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[^8]: Chambre des Représentants de Belgique. Enquête parlementaire sur la manière dont l'enquête, dans ses volets policiers et judiciaires, a été menée dans l'affaire Dutroux-Nihoul et consorts, rapport complémentaire, Doc. 713/8-96/97, February 16, 1998, chapter V, p. 158; translated from the French. https://www.dekamer.be/FLWB/PDF/49/0713/49K0713008.pdf
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[^9]: Chambre des Représentants de Belgique. Motions of October 21, 1998, Doc. 25/370-1995; translated from the French and Dutch. https://www.dekamer.be/FLWB/PDF/49/0025/49K0025370.pdf
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[^10]: Planchar, Roland. "Des 'X' sans crédit." La Libre Belgique, February 16, 2004. https://www.lalibre.be/belgique/2004/02/16/des-x-sans-credit-LKLTKQICABBWXKFUTUJNXL6NRY/
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[^11]: BNNVARA Zembla. "De X-dossiers, deel I," broadcast March 11, 2004; programme description in Dutch, translated. https://www.bnnvara.nl/zembla/artikelen/de-x-dossiers-deel-i
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[^12]: "Régina Louf, témoin X1 dans l'affaire Dutroux, brise le silence." La Dernière Heure, online, 2020; translated from the French. https://www.dhnet.be/actu/faits/regina-louf-temoin-x1-dans-l-affaire-dutroux-brise-le-silence-marc-dutroux-libere-je-m-y-prepare-5e652e1e9978e2051e15c16c
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@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ relations:
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role: "Tolpaertpolder rezoning"
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fn: 3
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created: 2026-05-15
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updated: 2026-09-22
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updated: 2026-10-09
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---
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Leopold Lippens was born in 1941 into a family whose members included his father, also mayor of [[Knokke-Heist|Knokke]], and his grandfather, a politician and former governor-general of the [[Belgian Congo|Congo]] who was made a baron by [[Leopold III]] in 1936; Lippens inherited the title on his father's death in 1986. He moved into his father's old office as mayor in 1979 and held it until his death. By his own account he knew Jackie Kennedy and [[Ted Kennedy]], and he became friends with [[Donald Trump]] over golf. In 1990 he banned "frigobox tourists" who brought their own lunch to the beach. He stepped back for health reasons in November 2020, was found to have leukemia, and died on February 19, 2021, at 79, during a council meeting he could not attend. His brother is the banker [[Count Maurice Auguste Lippens]].[^1][^2]
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@ -45,4 +45,4 @@ In the [[X-Dossier]] investigation under Judge [[Jean-Marc Connerotte]], the wit
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[^1]: "Leopold Lippens, the baron-mayor of Knokke, dies at 79." *The Brussels Times,* February 20, 2021, archived March 2, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210302173436/https://www.brusselstimes.com/news/belgium-all-news/155873/leopold-lippens-mayor-knokke-dies-at-79-congo-baron-michelin-kennedy-trump-leukaemia/
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[^2]: "Mayor Leopold Lippens of Knokke-Heist has died aged 79." *VRT NWS,* February 19, 2021, archived February 20, 2021.
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[^3]: Goedgebeur, Helen. "Is Leopold Lippens schuldig aan belangenvermenging? Parket voert onderzoek naar burgemeester Knokke-Heist." *VRT NWS,* January 7, 2020, citing *De Standaard;* translated from the Dutch. https://web.archive.org/web/20200108234511/https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2020/01/07/is-leopold-lippens-schuldig-aan-belangenvermenging-parket-voert/
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[^4]: Bulté, Annemie, Douglas De Coninck, and Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck. *De X-dossiers.* Epo, 1999, and the leaked summary of the X-file investigation published by WikiLeaks in 2009. The witness attributions were located through the Institute for the Study of Globalization and Covert Politics compilation "Belgian X-Dossiers of the Dutroux Affair: the Accused," used as a finding aid only.
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[^4]: Bulté, Annemie, Douglas De Coninck, and Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck. *De X-dossiers: wat België niet mocht weten over de zaak-Dutroux.* Antwerp: Houtekiet, 1999, 543 pp., ISBN 90-5240-536-0, and the leaked summary of the X-file investigation published by WikiLeaks in 2009.
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@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ relations:
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role: "brother"
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fn: 2
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created: 2026-05-15
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updated: 2026-09-22
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updated: 2026-10-09
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---
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Maurice Lippens is the brother of [[Count Leopold Lippens]], mayor of [[Knokke-Heist]] from 1979 to 2021, and was chairman of the bank [[Fortis]].[^1][^2]
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@ -37,5 +37,5 @@ In the [[X-Dossier]] investigation under Judge [[Jean-Marc Connerotte]], the wit
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: "Maurice Lippens rompt le silence." *VRT NWS,* September 19, 2009, archived October 16, 2019; translated from the French. https://web.archive.org/web/20191016073837/https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/fr/2009/09/19/maurice_lippens_romptlesilence-1-600628/
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[^2]: Bulté, Annemie, Douglas De Coninck, and Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck. *De X-dossiers.* Epo, 1999, and the leaked summary of the X-file investigation published by WikiLeaks in 2009. The witness attributions were located through the Institute for the Study of Globalization and Covert Politics compilation "Belgian X-Dossiers of the Dutroux Affair: the Accused," used as a finding aid only.
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[^2]: Bulté, Annemie, Douglas De Coninck, and Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck. *De X-dossiers: wat België niet mocht weten over de zaak-Dutroux.* Antwerp: Houtekiet, 1999, 543 pp., ISBN 90-5240-536-0, and the leaked summary of the X-file investigation published by WikiLeaks in 2009.
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[^3]: "Did Maurice Lippens deceive small investors?" *VRT NWS,* September 21, 2013, archived September 20, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190920101737/https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/en/2013/09/21/did_maurice_lippensdeceivesmallinvestors-1-1734811/
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@ -5,11 +5,10 @@ tags:
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- Person
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- Netherlands
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- PedophileNetwork
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- Dutroux
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- RolodexInvestigation
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summary: "Karel Maasdam, operating under the alias 'Alex Privee,' ran the Bell Boys callboy service in the Netherlands during the 1980s, which provided underage male prostitutes to senior Dutch judicial and political figures; his networks were connected to international pedophile organizations and were investigated in connection with the Dutroux affair and the Dutch Rolodex Investigation."
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summary: "Karel Maasdam, alias 'Alex Privee,' ran the Bell Boys callboy service in the Netherlands in the 1980s, which supplied underage male prostitutes to Dutch judicial and political figures, and is named in the Rolodex Investigation."
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created: 2026-05-14
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updated: 2026-05-14
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updated: 2026-10-09
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location: "Netherlands"
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---
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Karel Maasdam, using the alias "Alex Privee," operated the [[Bell Boys]] callboy service in the [[Netherlands]] during the 1980s, a commercial sexual abuse enterprise that provided underage boys to clients drawn from the Dutch legal, judicial, and political establishment. Maasdam also operated the [[Festival Bar]], a venue connected to the networks documented in Dutch pedophile investigations of the period. His operations were connected to [[John Stamford]]'s [[Spartacus Network]] through companies including [[Korper and Korver]] and [[Adonis]].[^1]
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@ -20,15 +19,13 @@ The [[Rolodex Investigation]], a Dutch police inquiry into organized boy prostit
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[[Henry Hans Holthuis]], who served as Chief Prosecutor of the [[International Criminal Court|International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia]] from 2003 to 2007, is among the prominent Dutch officials named in connection with the Bell Boys investigation. [[Robert Jan Warmerdam]], a witness in Dutch investigations, described attending events connected to Maasdam's network and provided testimony linking the Bell Boys service to the broader international pedophile infrastructure centered on [[Amsterdam]].[^1]
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### Connections to Belgian Network
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Maasdam appears in the [[X-Dossier]] material from the [[Marc Dutroux]] investigation. Witness X2 named Maasdam in describing the overlapping Belgian and Dutch networks of organized abuse that she said she had direct knowledge of from the 1980s. The witness identified connections between the Belgian networks around [[Baron Benoit de Bonvoisin]] and the Dutch networks centered on Maasdam's operations.[^2]
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The Belgian X-Dossier witness referred to as X2 described attending events at locations connected to [[Count Maurice Auguste Lippens|Maurice Lippens]]'s villa circuit and said her presence there was arranged partly through the social milieu connected to Maasdam's networks. These claimed connections between the Belgian elite abuse networks and Dutch commercial abuse operations reflected what investigators identified as a shared social infrastructure operating across national borders.[^2]
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### International Connections
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Maasdam's [[Festival Bar]] and [[Bell Boys]] service intersected with the broader international pedophile network centered on [[Amsterdam]], including [[PAN Magazine]] distribution networks and the [[Pedophile Information Exchange|PIE]]-connected organizations that used Amsterdam as a publishing and organizational base. The [[G-Force nightclub]] in Amsterdam - connected through company structures to Maasdam's enterprises - was also investigated as a venue whose management had links to the [[Gero-Video]] and [[TAG Films]] production networks connected to [[Warwick Spinks]].[^1]
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Maasdam's Festival Bar and Bell Boys service intersected with the broader international pedophile network centered on Amsterdam, including [[PAN Magazine]] distribution networks and the [[Pedophile Information Exchange|PIE]]-connected organizations that used Amsterdam as a publishing and organizational base. The [[G-Force nightclub]] in Amsterdam - connected through company structures to Maasdam's enterprises - was also investigated as a venue whose management had links to the [[Gero-Video]] and [[TAG Films]] production networks connected to [[Warwick Spinks]].[^1]
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### Name in the X-Dossier
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A Brussels magistrate identified in X-Dossier witness statements only by the first name Karel (PV 117.535, November 19, 1996) is not identified in those statements as Karel Maasdam.[^2]
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### Footnotes
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tags:
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- Person
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- OrganizedCrime
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summary: "Peter Howells conducted activities as a convicted pedophile integrated into the international child trafficking frameworks of the late 20th century, specifically within the exploitative environment of Amsterdam's red-light areas and canal networks."
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summary: "Peter Howells is a convicted paedophile and the owner of the Bovver Boots children's theatrical agency in London and Amsterdam, and of a houseboat on Prinzengracht, according to Nick Davies."
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updated: 2026-10-09
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---
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Peter Howells conducted activities as a convicted pedophile integrated into the international child trafficking frameworks of the late 20th century, specifically within the exploitative environment of [[Amsterdam]]'s red-light areas and canal networks.
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Peter Howells is a convicted paedophile who, according to [[Nick Davies]], owned a children's theatrical agency, [[Bovver Boots]], with offices in London and [[Amsterdam]]. S. Dovey described him as integrated into the international child trafficking frameworks of the late 20th century, within the environment of Amsterdam's red-light areas and canal networks.[^1]
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### Operations in Amsterdam
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Howells' main venture, the apparently legitimate children's talent agency designated [[Bovver Boots]], acted as a cover for an advanced child pornography endeavor located on a houseboat anchored in central [[Amsterdam]]. This positioning permitted Howells to take advantage of the city's lenient supervision of waterways and its status as a center for illegal pursuits, aiding the creation and spread of abusive content involving susceptible boys obtained from wider European trafficking circuits. The houseboat arrangement offered both portability and privacy, allowing Howells to avoid prompt identification while coordinating with providers who supplied children for recording and other abusive objectives.
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Nick Davies described Howells as one of the friends of [[Warwick Spinks]] in Amsterdam, and wrote that Howells is a convicted paedophile who has also been named in police statements by children from Hackney in north London who say that they were abused, photographed and filmed. Dutch police who visited Howells's houseboat on Prinzengracht in Amsterdam found the walls papered with obscene photographs of young boys.[^2] S. Dovey wrote that Bovver Boots acted as a cover for an advanced child pornography endeavor located on a houseboat anchored in central Amsterdam, that the position permitted Howells to take advantage of the city's lenient supervision of waterways and its status as a center for illegal pursuits, and that the houseboat offered both portability and privacy, allowing him to avoid prompt identification while coordinating with providers who supplied children.[^1]
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Howells' endeavors connected directly with notable individuals in the pedophile subculture, particularly via commercial pacts with [[Warwick Spinks]], a major operator in [[Spartacus Club|Spartacus International]]'s escort offerings. Spinks, utilizing his array of canal boats beyond central [[Amsterdam]] as secluded spots for client meetings, regularly leased boys to Howells for employment in his pornography fabrication. [^1]
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S. Dovey wrote that Howells's dealings with Spinks, whom Dovey described as a major operator in [[Spartacus Club|Spartacus International]]'s escort offerings, included commercial arrangements under which Spinks leased boys to Howells for use in pornography, with Spinks's boats outside central Amsterdam serving as meeting places for clients.[^1]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). *Eye of the Chickenhawk*. United States: Thehotstar.
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[^2]: Nick Davies, "A paedophile ring in Amsterdam," The Guardian, April 5, 1997, https://www.nickdavies.net/1997/04/05/a-paedophile-ring-in-amsterdam/
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role: "witness X1"
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fn: 1
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created: 2026-04-28
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updated: 2026-09-22
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updated: 2026-10-09
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---
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Regina Louf, born in Ghent in 1969, was the witness known as X1 in the investigation opened at Neufchâteau after the arrest of [[Marc Dutroux]] in August 1996. The investigating judge [[Jean-Marc Connerotte]] had set up a free telephone line for information on child abuse; a Dutch-speaking caller, Tania, a friend of Louf's, reached the gendarme Patrick De Baets, who was in Connerotte's office at the time, and after some days Louf herself contacted him. A special cell of the Brussels BSR under De Baets questioned her, with every interview videotaped and summarized in French for Neufchâteau, while senior gendarmerie officers and magistrates watched from behind glass. Her statements opened a series of "related files," the [[X-Dossier]].[^1]
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Regina Louf, born in Ghent in 1969, was the witness known as X1 in the investigation opened at Neufchâteau after the arrest of [[Marc Dutroux]] in August 1996. The investigating judge [[Jean-Marc Connerotte]] had set up a free telephone line for information on child abuse; a Dutch-speaking caller, Tania, a friend of Louf's, reached the gendarme [[Patrick De Baets]], who, according to the Senate proposal of 2000, was in Connerotte's office at the time, and after some days Louf herself contacted him. A special cell of the Brussels BSR under De Baets questioned her, with every interview videotaped and summarized in French for Neufchâteau, while senior gendarmerie officers and magistrates watched from behind glass. Her statements opened a series of "related files," the [[X-Dossier]].[^1]
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### Her Account
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She was questioned at length thirteen times under the code name X1. She summarized her family background in two sentences: "My mother was abused by her father, a police commissioner in Knokke. I was rented out by my mother, with my father's knowledge."[^2] Louf said that from early childhood she had been prostituted by her grandmother, [[Cecile Beernaert]], at a villa in [[Knokke-Heist]] near the [[Royal Zoute Golf Club]], that at about twelve she was handed to a pimp, [[Tony Van den Boggaert|Tony Van den Bogaert]], who took her to parties in Brussels attended by [[Jean-Michel Nihoul]], and that the parties moved from sex to torture and murder. Among those she named as clients or participants were the former prime minister [[Paul Vanden Boeynants]] and members of the Lippens family, [[Count Leopold Lippens]] and [[Count Maurice Auguste Lippens]]. She said she had witnessed the 1984 murder of [[Christine Van Hees]] in the abandoned mushroom farm at Auderghem, naming Dutroux, Nihoul, [[Bernard Weinstein]] and the lawyer [[Michel Vander Elst]], and the 1983 death of [[Carine Dellaert]] after childbirth. She described a factory site that investigators connected to [[ASCO Industries NV]], a villa at Faulx-les-Tombes and parties on the Avenue Louise.[^3] She published her account as *Zwijgen is voor daders* in 1998.[^3]
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She was questioned at length thirteen times under the code name X1. She summarized her family background in two sentences: "My mother was abused by her father, a police commissioner in Knokke. I was rented out by my mother, with my father's knowledge."[^2] The writer S. Dovey wrote that Louf said that from early childhood she had been prostituted by her grandmother, [[Cecile Beernaert]], at a villa in [[Knokke-Heist]] near the [[Royal Zoute Golf Club]], that at about twelve she was handed to a pimp, [[Tony Van den Boggaert|Tony Van den Bogaert]], who took her to parties in Brussels attended by [[Jean-Michel Nihoul]], and that the parties moved from sex to torture and murder. Among those she named as clients or participants were the former prime minister [[Paul Vanden Boeynants]] and members of the Lippens family, [[Count Leopold Lippens]] and [[Count Maurice Auguste Lippens]]. She said she had witnessed the 1984 murder of [[Christine Van Hees]] in the abandoned mushroom farm at Auderghem, naming Dutroux, Nihoul, [[Bernard Weinstein]] and the lawyer [[Michel Vander Elst]], and the 1983 death of [[Carine Dellaert]] after childbirth. She described a factory site that investigators connected to [[ASCO Industries NV]], a villa at Faulx-les-Tombes and parties on the Avenue Louise.[^3] She published her account as *Zwijgen is voor daders* in 1998.[^3]
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### The Investigation of Her Testimony
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Her account of Van Hees led the Brussels gendarme Aimé Bille to the unsolved file, and he found that the earlier investigation under the investigating judge [[Jean-Claude Van Espen]] had "multiple gaps." Her statements led to the reopening of the murders of Van Hees, Dellaert, [[Veronique Dubrulle]], [[Katrien de Cuyper]] and Hanim Ayse Mazibas. A psychiatric report on her by Professor Igodt of the Catholic University of Leuven was read so differently by others that its author publicly urged "extreme caution" about the concrete details of her testimony while calling them "useful data" for further investigation.[^1]
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After Connerotte was removed from the Dutroux case in October 1996 and replaced by Judge Jacques Langlois, the cell came under a Mr. Duterme, who from April 1997 had De Baets's colleagues reread the interviews and report on her credibility and on possible manipulation by De Baets's team; the first report, very negative for De Baets, "totally lacked credibility," and a second was ordered. In the summer of 1997 Langlois ordered a complete rereading of all the related files and removed De Baets and Bille from the investigation. A criminal investigation of the two gendarmes by Judge Pignolet was dropped and a gendarmerie disciplinary inquiry acquitted them completely; they then filed more than eighty complaints alleging that reports in the rereading had been falsified.[^1]
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The parliamentary commission's complementary report of February 16, 1998 gives a different account of the first contact. It records that a friend of the Dutch-speaking anonymous witness telephoned Judge Connerotte, who put her in contact with a Dutch-speaking investigator of the Brussels 3e SRC and then issued a written instruction to that investigator to question her. The same passage records that the 3e SRC investigators were assigned to the related files of September 1996 on the basis of this witness's statements, under files 109/96, 110/96, 111/96, 136/96 and 139/96.[^4]
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In January 1998 Louf gave up her anonymity, in part to protest the stalling of the inquiry, amid a press campaign against her fed by leaks from police and judicial circles. On April 23, 1998, the day Dutroux briefly escaped, the prosecutors-general of Antwerp, Ghent and Brussels decided that "no proof could be found that Regina Louf could make any contribution whatsoever to these investigations" and closed the related files. The same day, in a confrontation with Louf, the man described as her "so-called protector" admitted that he had had sex with her when she was twelve, with her parents' knowledge, and had once lent her to others; the admission was not pursued, the acts being time-barred.[^1] Her parents had told police that a family friend in his forties, Tony Van den Bogaert, had a key to their home and unlimited access to their twelve-year-old daughter, and he admitted his relationship with her to police; the RTBF program *Au Nom de la Loi* presented the parents as victims of a fantasist without mentioning either admission.[^4]
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After Connerotte was removed from the Dutroux case in October 1996 and replaced by Judge Jacques Langlois, the cell came under a Mr. Duterme, who from April 1997 had De Baets's colleagues reread the interviews and report on her credibility and on possible manipulation by De Baets's team; the first report, very negative for De Baets, totally lacked credibility, and a second was ordered. In the summer of 1997 Langlois ordered a complete rereading of all the related files and removed De Baets and Bille from the investigation. A criminal investigation of the two gendarmes by Judge Pignolet was dropped and a gendarmerie disciplinary inquiry acquitted them completely; they then filed more than eighty complaints alleging that reports in the rereading had been falsified.[^1]
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In January 1998 Louf gave up her anonymity, in part to protest the stalling of the inquiry, amid a press campaign against her fed by leaks from police and judicial circles. On April 23, 1998, the day Dutroux escaped, the prosecutors-general of Antwerp, Ghent and Brussels decided that "no proof could be found that Regina Louf could make any contribution whatsoever to these investigations" and closed the related files. According to the Senate proposal, the same day, in a confrontation with Louf, the man it describes as her "so-called protector" admitted that he had had sex with her when she was twelve, with her parents' knowledge, and had once lent her to others; the admission was not pursued, the acts being time-barred.[^1] *The Observer* reported in 2002 that her parents had told police that a family friend in his forties, Tony Van den Bogaert, had a key to their home and unlimited access to their twelve-year-old daughter, that he had himself admitted his relationship with Louf to police, and that the RTBF program *Au Nom de la Loi* presented the parents as victims of a fantasist without mentioning either.[^5]
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On July 11, 1997 the Neufchâteau investigating judge ordered a general rereading of all the related files except file 110/96. His service note for file 109 prescribed, among other steps, a reread on an adversarial basis and a list of steps aimed at making the X witnesses credible (visant à crédibiliser les X).[^6]
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On June 3, 1997 the antenna head [[Jean-Luc Duterme]] told the commander of the Brussels BSR that he could no longer work with the team that had conducted the interviews of an anonymous witness. The commission records that his note said the five victims heard so far had yielded little that could objectify their statements, despite all the investigative measures taken.[^7] A [[Zembla]] programme description of March 18, 2004 states that the gendarmerie leadership judged after some months that the inquiry had been wrongly conducted and that the investigators were suspected of falsifying a procès-verbal, and that three years later an internal gendarmerie commission reported that they had done their work with integrity and professionally.[^8]
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[[La Libre Belgique]] reported in 2004 that her account was recorded over more than 1,500 pages, that magistrates in Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent and Neufchâteau stated at a press conference on January 30, 1998 that no element of proof supported the witnesses' statements, and that on March 17, 2000 it became known that semen recovered from Van Hees's body matched neither Nihoul nor any known suspect, which the paper described as destroying the credit of X1 on the point; it adds that the chambre du conseil at Neufchâteau removed the Louf file from the prosecutor's office on October 30, 2003.[^9] A Zembla programme description of March 11, 2004 states that X1 had "daderkennis" (knowledge of the perpetrators) in the Van Hees and Dellaert cases and that the gendarmerie confirmed much of what she said; it states also that Dutroux's lawyer asked that she be heard at the Arlon trial.[^10] [[Michel Clippe]], a former adjudant of the Brussels BSR, told La Dernière Heure in 2020 that he was able to verify a great deal of what she said.[^11] On November 27, 2002 the [[Chamber of Representatives]]' justice committee tabled motions on an interpellation by [[Vincent Decroly]] on statements by the Liège prosecutor-general [[Anne Thily]] to BBC journalists about Louf; Decroly's recommendation called the statements mendacious and disqualifying and asked for a disciplinary file against Thily over her BBC statements of January 16, 2002.[^12]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Sénat de Belgique. Proposition visant à instituer une commission d'enquête parlementaire chargée d'enquêter sur l'éloignement de deux enquêteurs de la cellule d'enquête bruxelloise « Neufchâteau », déposée par M. Frans Lozie, Doc. 2-563/1, October 9, 2000, développements. https://www.senate.be
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[^2]: Smoltczyk, Alexander. "Im Netz der Dossiers." *Der Spiegel,* no. 42/2001, October 14, 2001; translated from the German. https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/im-netz-der-dossiers-a-c9fe5b47-0002-0001-0000-000020353850
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[^3]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023. Sole source for the passages so cited; the underlying accounts are Louf, Regina, *Zwijgen is voor daders* (1998), and Bulté, Annemie, Douglas De Coninck and Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck, *De X-dossiers: wat België niet mocht weten over de zaak-Dutroux* (Houtekiet, 1999).
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[^4]: Frenkiel, Olenka. "Belgium's silent heart of darkness." *The Observer,* May 5, 2002. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/may/05/dutroux.featuresreview
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[^3]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023. The underlying accounts are Louf, Regina, *Zwijgen is voor daders. De getuigenis van X1,* Houtekiet / Linkeroever Uitgevers, 1998, 310 pp., ISBN 90-5240-487-9, and Bulté, Annemie, Douglas De Coninck and Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck, *De X-dossiers: wat België niet mocht weten over de zaak-Dutroux,* Antwerp: Houtekiet, 1999, 543 pp., ISBN 90-5240-536-0.
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[^4]: Chambre des Représentants de Belgique. Enquête parlementaire sur la manière dont l'enquête, dans ses volets policiers et judiciaires, a été menée dans l'affaire Dutroux-Nihoul et consorts, rapport complémentaire, Doc. 713/8-96/97, February 16, 1998, chapter V, p. 152; translated from the French. https://www.dekamer.be/FLWB/PDF/49/0713/49K0713008.pdf
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[^5]: Frenkiel, Olenka. "Belgium's silent heart of darkness." *The Observer,* May 5, 2002. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/may/05/dutroux.featuresreview
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[^6]: Chambre des Représentants de Belgique. Enquête parlementaire sur la manière dont l'enquête, dans ses volets policiers et judiciaires, a été menée dans l'affaire Dutroux-Nihoul et consorts, rapport complémentaire, Doc. 713/8-96/97, February 16, 1998, chapter V, p. 157; translated from the French. https://www.dekamer.be/FLWB/PDF/49/0713/49K0713008.pdf
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[^7]: Chambre des Représentants de Belgique. Enquête parlementaire sur la manière dont l'enquête, dans ses volets policiers et judiciaires, a été menée dans l'affaire Dutroux-Nihoul et consorts, rapport complémentaire, Doc. 713/8-96/97, February 16, 1998, chapter V, pp. 154-155; translated from the French. https://www.dekamer.be/FLWB/PDF/49/0713/49K0713008.pdf
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[^8]: BNNVARA Zembla. "De X-dossiers, deel II," broadcast March 18, 2004; programme description in Dutch, translated. https://www.bnnvara.nl/zembla/artikelen/de-x-dossiers-deel-ii
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[^9]: Planchar, Roland. "Des 'X' sans crédit." La Libre Belgique, February 16, 2004. https://www.lalibre.be/belgique/2004/02/16/des-x-sans-credit-LKLTKQICABBWXKFUTUJNXL6NRY/
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[^10]: BNNVARA Zembla. "De X-dossiers, deel I," broadcast March 11, 2004; programme description in Dutch, translated. https://www.bnnvara.nl/zembla/artikelen/de-x-dossiers-deel-i
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[^11]: "Régina Louf, témoin X1 dans l'affaire Dutroux, brise le silence." La Dernière Heure, online, 2020; translated from the French. https://www.dhnet.be/actu/faits/regina-louf-temoin-x1-dans-l-affaire-dutroux-brise-le-silence-marc-dutroux-libere-je-m-y-prepare-5e652e1e9978e2051e15c16c
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[^12]: Chambre des Représentants de Belgique. Motions of November 27, 2002, DOC 50 0025/415; translated from the French and Dutch. https://www.dekamer.be/FLWB/Pdf/50/0025/50K0025415.pdf
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