Michelle Martin

Michelle Martin was the wife of Marc Dutroux and one of his principal accomplices in the abduction and imprisonment of children in the mid-1990s. She played a direct role in the deaths of Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo, two eight-year-old girls abducted by Dutroux on July 22, 1995. While Dutroux was serving a short prison sentence for car theft in late 1995, Martin was responsible for feeding the captives held in the basement dungeon at his Marcinelle home. She testified at trial that she was too frightened to go downstairs to feed them. The two girls starved to death during Dutroux's incarceration.¹

Martin also assisted Dutroux in the abductions of Sabine Dardenne and Laetitia Delhez in 1996, the two victims who survived and whose rescue in August 1996 triggered the broader investigation.²

At trial in June 2004, Martin was convicted of complicity in murder, kidnapping, and illegal imprisonment. She received a 30-year sentence. In her trial testimony she corroborated key aspects of the prosecution's case, confirming that Dutroux had acted on instructions from Jean-Michel Nihoul in selecting kidnapping targets.²

Martin was granted conditional release in August 2012 after serving 16 years, upon the agreement of the Clarisses convent in central Belgium to provide her residence. The decision generated intense public controversy in Belgium. She was subsequently released without any conditions or supervision in August 2022.³ She had divorced Dutroux during her imprisonment.