31 lines
3.3 KiB
Markdown
31 lines
3.3 KiB
Markdown
---
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category: "Criminals & Offenders"
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aliases:
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- "Tony Van den Bogaert"
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tags:
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- BelgiumScandals
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- Person
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- Belgium
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- Dutroux
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summary: "Family friend of Regina Louf (witness X1) whom The Observer reported in 2002 had a key to her parents' home and, by the paper's account, admitted to police a relationship with the twelve-year-old."
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location: "Belgium"
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created: 2026-05-14
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updated: 2026-10-09
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---
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Tony Van den Bogaert is the name *The Observer* gave in 2002 for a friend of the family of [[Regina Louf]], the witness X1 in the [[Marc Dutroux]] investigation, in Ghent. The paper reported that Louf told investigators that from the age of twelve she had been "given" by her parents to a family friend of that name who had a key to their house; that her parents had told police that a family friend in his forties of that name had a key to their home and unlimited access to their twelve-year-old daughter; and that he "had himself admitted his relationship with Louf to police." It wrote that he was living on the border of Belgium and the Netherlands and had not been prosecuted.[^1]
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*La Dernière Heure* reported in 2020 that he had admitted sexual relations with Louf when she was twelve and he was thirty-nine, and that her mother had acknowledged that at that time he had the key to the house and came when he wished. The paper wrote that Louf presents him as her pimp between the ages of thirteen and seventeen.[^2]
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The Senate proposal of October 9, 2000 states that on April 23, 1998, in a confrontation with Louf, a man it calls 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 because the acts were time-barred. The proposal does not name him.[^3]
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### Louf's Account
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The writer S. Dovey wrote that Louf said that from about the age of twelve Van den Bogaert acted as her pimp, taking her from Ghent to parties in Brussels attended by [[Jean-Michel Nihoul]], to the [[Le Dolo]] club and to Amsterdam, and that he was present on the night of the 1984 murder of [[Christine Van Hees]].[^4] The prosecutors-general of Antwerp, Ghent and Brussels found on April 23, 1998, that "no proof could be found that Regina Louf could make any contribution whatsoever to these investigations."[^3]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: 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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[^2]: "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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[^3]: 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. The proposal does not name the "so-called protector."
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[^4]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023. Its statement that he died by suicide in 1995 is contradicted by *The Observer*'s 2002 report that he was living on the Belgian-Dutch border.
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