A senior policemen working on the Dutroux investigation recently told me the following astonishing story.

The policeman was in Neufchateau with Investigating magistrate Connerotte and state prosecutor Bourlet, when a highly agitated, and terrified, woman turned up and insisted on making a statement.

The woman was a very close relative of Julien Pierre, Marc Dutroux's lawyer, and she made important revelations about him.

Connerotte and Bourlet probably thought that these revelations would be about Dutroux, but if so, they were wrong. The revelations were about Julien Pierre and Patrick Haemers.

Patrick Haemers escaped from a prison van in Belgium in 1986, and rapidly made his way to South America via Paris. But little is known about his precise movements imediately after his escape.

What the woman said is that Patrick Haemers immediately made his way to Julian Pierre's house after his escape. She  knew this because she was in the house at the time. This was perfectly normal,  she is a very close relative of Julien Pierre.

Julien Pierre was not "only" Dutroux's lawyer. He achieved notoriety  by having  Connerotte removed from Dutroux case on a technicality. It was this removal which triggered the White Movement in Belgium, and the massive demonstrations in the streets of Brussels. The universal feeling, in the streets, was that Connerotte was removed because he was simply too efficient.

We do not have proof of this, but we have strong evidence that Patrick Haemers' lawyer, Jean-Paul Dumont, got rid of an investigating magistrate because he was simply too good. A key police informer revealed that Haemers lawyer Jean-Paul Dumont was working on getting magistrate Collin (investigating the Haemers gang) "promoted out of the way". Collin was indeed promoted, and replaced by magistrate Laffineur.

A detailed explanation  of the way Collin was removed, and replaced an infinitely  more amenable magistrate, will be provided in my next blog.