Child Killer's Love Letters to Girl, 15

A fresh scandal over Belgium's handling of the paedophile Marc Dutroux erupted yesterday after it was revealed that he was for two years allowed to correspond romantically with a 15-year-old girl from his prison cell.

Dutroux, who is awaiting trail accused of kidnapping and abusing six girls aged between eight and 19 in the mid 1990s and of murdering four of them, wrote to the girl, Isabelle D in Brussels, between 1996 and 1998, styling himself her mentor and boyfriend.

The correspondence began 15 days after the bodies of two eight-year-old girls were found in a hidden dungeon in his cellar.

Dutroux denies many of the most serious charges he faces, claiming that he procured the girls for the sexual gratification of others and not just himself, and that some of the deaths were accidental or committed by someone else. He is due to stand trial in March, seven years after he was arrested.

He was sentenced to 13 years in 1989 for raping a child, but was released after three years for good behaviour.

The current investigation has been characterised by a catalogue of legal, ethical and procedural errors.

The daily newspaper Le Soir revealed the correspondence with the schoolgirl yesterday. The information is thought to come from a pre-trial dossier.

Psychologists said such behaviour was classic grooming. Signing his letters "your little prince Marc", he pledged his "little flower" his love and promised that they would soon be reunited.

The authorities also allowed him to receive photos of the girl and to instruct her to take others from certain angles. He wrote affectionately and made various jokes of a sexual nature.

Over the two years Isabelle wrote some 200 letters to Dutroux, writing to him up to three times a week while he hand wrote almost 400 pages, some of which were published yesterday.

Isabelle said she hoped to catch a glimpse of Dutroux during one of his many pre-trial hearings. She felt that the media had exaggerated his crimes and were treating him inhumanely.

Authorities in the high security prison in southern Belgium where Dutroux is being held knew about the relationship and read all the letters, but did not intervene.