vault backup: 2026-10-09 21:03:20

10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Jean-Marc Connerotte.md

@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ tags:
   - Person
   - Belgium
   - Dutroux
-summary: "Neufchâteau investigating judge who freed Sabine Dardenne and Laetitia Delhez in August 1996, opened the hotline that led to witness X1, and was removed from the Dutroux file in October 1996."
+summary: "Neufchâteau investigating judge who freed two kidnapped girls in August 1996, opened the hotline that led to witness X1, and was removed from the Dutroux file in October 1996."
 born: 1948
 location: "Neufchâteau, Belgium"
 relations:
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ created: 2026-04-28
 updated: 2026-10-09
 ---
 
-Jean-Marc Connerotte was the investigating judge at Neufchâteau in the file on the abduction of [[Laetitia Delhez]], taken at Bertrix on August 9, 1996. [[Marc Dutroux]], his wife [[Michelle Martin]] and [[Michel Lelievre]] were arrested on August 12; on August 15 Dutroux confessed, and on his directions Laetitia and [[Sabine Dardenne]] were found alive in the cellar of his house at [[Marcinelle, Belgium|Marcinelle]]. The bodies of [[Julie Lejeune]] and [[Melissa Russo]] were found at Sars-la-Buissière on August 17.[^1] The parliamentary commission noted that Connerotte and the Neufchâteau prosecutor, [[Michel Bourlet]], preferred to work directly with the investigators rather than through the command of the investigation unit, in contrast to the more formal practice of his successor.[^2]
+Jean-Marc Connerotte was the investigating judge at Neufchâteau in the file on the abduction of a 14-year-old girl, taken at Bertrix on August 9, 1996. [[Marc Dutroux]], his wife [[Michelle Martin]] and [[Michel Lelievre]] were arrested on August 12; on August 15 Dutroux confessed, and on his directions the girl and a 12-year-old girl abducted in May 1996 were found alive in the cellar of his house at [[Marcinelle, Belgium|Marcinelle]]. The bodies of [[Julie Lejeune]] and [[Melissa Russo]] were found at Sars-la-Buissière on August 17.[^1] The parliamentary commission noted that Connerotte and the Neufchâteau prosecutor, [[Michel Bourlet]], preferred to work directly with the investigators rather than through the command of the investigation unit, in contrast to the more formal practice of his successor.[^2]
 
 ### The Hotline and X1
 
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ On October 14, 1996 the Court of Cassation removed Connerotte from files 86/96 (
 
 ### The X-Witnesses
 
-After a public appeal by Connerotte in September 1996, eight witnesses gave testimony alleging abuse by members of the elite, compiled as the [[X-Dossier]] under Bourlet. According to S. Dovey, the testimony described orgies and murders at villas in [[Knokke-Heist]] near the [[Royal Zoute Golf Club]], at the brothel of X1's grandmother [[Cecile Beernaert]] at Elizabetlaan 83 frequented by [[Paul Vanden Boeynants]], and at estates of [[Baron Benoit de Bonvoisin]], [[Count Leopold Lippens]] and [[Count Maurice Auguste Lippens]]. The team matched X1's account of Van Hees's murder to unpublished details, and her account of a friend, "Clo," to the 1983 death of [[Carine Dellaert]], identified through a yearbook, whose autopsy found laminaria sticks and gauze. X2 named de Bonvoisin, [[Jean-Paul Dumont]] and Lippens at sadomasochistic events near Chimay; X3 described abuse at royal castles between 1950 and 1962; X4 identified pornographic films featuring X1's friends. X2 also described orgies at the Mirano club attended by Princes Philippe and Laurent. The dossier mapped politicians of the Christian Social Party backed by the [[Societe Generale de Banque]], and described Dumont as representing [[CRIES]], which used [[UNICEF]] in the production of pornography through [[Joseph Douce]] and [[Michel Caignet]]'s [[Gaie France]]; X1 described hunts and snuff films at [[ASCO Industries NV]], owned by [[Roger Boas]]. A 2005 summary of the file, later leaked through WikiLeaks, described 300 tapes, some featuring members of the elite. The accused were linked to [[Operation Gladio]] networks, and one of them, [[Melchior Wathelet]], sat on the European Court of Justice. The investigation followed [[Jean-Michel Nihoul]]'s parties, more than twenty calls between Nihoul and Dutroux around Laetitia's abduction, vans of Nihoul's company [[Achats Services Commerces|ASCO]], and some 300 violent pornographic tapes seized from Nihoul's home. It examined the 1991 disappearance of [[Katrien de Cuyper]] and the X-Kiss studio, linked through [[Gerrit-Jan Ulrich]] and [[Robbie Van Der Plancken]] to Zandvoort, and a list compiled by Serge Heylens that included [[Beat Meier]], [[Edward Brongersma]] and [[Philippe Carpentier]] of CRIES; after a note signed "Anubis" was found in [[Bernard Weinstein]]'s cabin, the [[Abrasax Institute]] was raided and found to include police members. More than twenty witnesses died in the period, among them [[Gina Pardaens-Bernaer]] in 1998, after identifying Dutroux-linked material on [[Apollo Disks]]. Connerotte was cleared of bias in 1999; in 2004 he testified that contracts had been taken out on the lives of magistrates, who needed bulletproof vehicles. The dossier was leaked and published in 1999 as *De X-dossiers.*[^10]
+After a public appeal by Connerotte in September 1996, eight witnesses gave testimony alleging abuse by members of the elite, compiled as the [[X-Dossier]] under Bourlet. According to S. Dovey, the testimony described orgies and murders at villas in [[Knokke-Heist]] near the [[Royal Zoute Golf Club]], at the brothel of X1's grandmother [[Cecile Beernaert]] in Knokke frequented by [[Paul Vanden Boeynants]], and at estates of [[Baron Benoit de Bonvoisin]], [[Count Leopold Lippens]] and [[Count Maurice Auguste Lippens]]. The team matched X1's account of Van Hees's murder to unpublished details, and her account of a friend, "Clo," to the 1983 death of [[Carine Dellaert]], identified through a yearbook, whose autopsy found laminaria sticks and gauze. X2 named de Bonvoisin, [[Jean-Paul Dumont]] and Lippens at sadomasochistic events near Chimay; X3 described abuse at royal castles between 1950 and 1962; X4 identified pornographic films featuring X1's friends. X2 also described orgies at the Mirano club attended by Princes Philippe and Laurent. The dossier mapped politicians of the Christian Social Party backed by the [[Societe Generale de Banque]], and described Dumont as representing [[CRIES]], which used [[UNICEF]] in the production of pornography through [[Joseph Douce]] and [[Michel Caignet]]'s [[Gaie France]]; X1 described hunts and snuff films at [[ASCO Industries NV]], owned by [[Roger Boas]]. A 2005 summary of the file, later leaked through WikiLeaks, described 300 tapes, some featuring members of the elite. The accused were linked to [[Operation Gladio]] networks, and one of them, [[Melchior Wathelet]], sat on the European Court of Justice. The investigation followed [[Jean-Michel Nihoul]]'s parties, more than twenty calls between Nihoul and Dutroux around the August 9 abduction, vans of Nihoul's company [[Achats Services Commerces|ASCO]], and some 300 violent pornographic tapes seized from Nihoul's home. It examined the 1991 disappearance of [[Katrien de Cuyper]] and the X-Kiss studio, linked through [[Gerrit-Jan Ulrich]] and [[Robbie Van Der Plancken]] to Zandvoort, and a list compiled by Serge Heylens that included [[Beat Meier]], [[Edward Brongersma]] and [[Philippe Carpentier]] of CRIES; after a note signed "Anubis" was found in [[Bernard Weinstein]]'s cabin, the [[Abrasax Institute]] was raided and found to include police members. More than twenty witnesses died in the period, among them [[Gina Pardaens-Bernaer]] in 1998, after identifying Dutroux-linked material on [[Apollo Disks]]. Connerotte was cleared of bias in 1999; in 2004 he testified that contracts had been taken out on the lives of magistrates, who needed bulletproof vehicles. The dossier was leaked and published in 1999 as *De X-dossiers.*[^10]
 
 ### Footnotes