POLICE yesterday charged a third person in a widening Belgian child sex scandal as investigators stepped up the search for more missing girls and public outrage mounted.
Ms Michelle Martin, wife of Mr Marc Dutroux, another suspect in the case, was charged with being an accomplice in the abduction and illegal imprisonment of children, an assistant magistrate told reporters.
He added that Ms Martin's hearing had taken place in the southern town of Arlon, some distance from the crime scene of Neufchateau, in order to avoid reporters and an angry crowd.
Mr Dutroux (39), a convicted child sex offender, and associate Mr Michel Lelievre, were charged on Friday after police rescued Laetitia Delhez (14), and Sabine Dardenne (12), from a cell in house owned by Mr Dutroux in Charleroi. Both girls were sexually abused.
A fourth person, Brussels businessman Mr Jean Michel Nihoul, will appear in court today.
National euphoria at the rescue turned to dismay and anger at the weekend when Mr Dutroux led police to the buried bodies of eight year olds Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo, who died of starvation early this year after being kidnapped in June 1995.
Mr Detroux has also admitted abducting teenagers An Marchal and Eefje Lambrecks at the Belgian port of Ostend in August 1995.
The fate of the teenagers is unknown, but prosecutor Mr Michel Bourlet, who is leading the investigation, said they could have been handed to a Czech Republic prostitution network.
As investigators pooled evidence in the search for more missing children, public anger erupted at the fact that Mr Dutroux had been released for good behaviour 10 years early in 1992 from a 13 year sentence for rape and child abuse.
A specialist on child sex abuse said in a statement. "How can Belgian justice ignore the fact that paedophiles are often the most docile prisoners?" Ms Marie France Botte added. "Haven't they seen international studies that show more than 50 per cent of child abusers re offend within 48 hours of release?"
Mr Victor Hissel, the lawyer representing the parents of the eight year olds, said. "Julie and Melissa are victims of organised paedophilia, sacrificed by the scepticism which has reigned in Belgium towards groups of evil doers who are capable of kidnapping children and sexually abusing them."
At least 15 children have disappeared in Belgium in the past six years. Seven have now been found dead, six are still missing and two have been rescued.
The two eight year olds will be buried on Thursday. Their bodies were handed over to their parents in Grace Hollogne near Liege yesterday after an autopsy.
Hundreds of sympathisers queued outside the funeral parlour to pay their respects to the children, who lay side by side in small white coffins.