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90 - MISC/Knokke-Heist.md

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+---
+tags:
+  - Place
+  - Belgium
+  - Knokke-Heist
+  - West_Flanders
+  - Dutroux_Affair
+---
+Knokke-Heist was a Belgian coastal municipality in West Flanders that featured prominently in the [[X-Dossier]] as a location where child prostitution networks operated during the 1970s and 1980s. Witness X1 ([[Regina Louf]]) testified she was prostituted by her grandmother [[Cecile Beernaert]] at a hotel-villa located at Elizabetlaan 83 in Knokke-Heist, on the boundary of the [[Royal Zoute Golf Club]]. The golf club had been established by [[Count Maurice Auguste Lippens]] and its custodianship remained within the Lippens family through [[Count Leopold Lippens]], who served as Mayor of Knokke-Heist. X1 identified clients at the villa including [[Paul Vanden Boeynants]], Maurice Lippens, and [[Michel Nihoul]].[^1]
+
+Testimonies from X1 and her two childhood friends, along with X4, suggested families in Knokke-Heist were selling their children into a child prostitution ring during this period. The area around the golf club was identified as a venue for both the initial prostitution of children and later sadomasochist sex parties attended by Belgium's political and business elite.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). *Eye of the Chickenhawk*. United States: Thehotstar.