---
category: Belgium Scandals
created: 2026-05-14
location: Belgium
relations:
- fn: 4
  type: spouse_of
  with: '[[Marc Dutroux]]'
summary: Wife and accomplice of Marc Dutroux, convicted in 2004 of the sequestration
  of six victims, including two girls who starved in the cellar; sentenced to 30 years,
  released in 2012.
tags:
- Person
- Belgium
- Dutroux
updated: 2026-09-22
---

Michelle Martin was the wife of [Marc Dutroux](/people/marc-dutroux/) and one of his accomplices. [Julie Lejeune](/people/julie-lejeune/) and [Melissa Russo](/people/melissa-russo/), both eight, were abducted at Grâce-Hollogne on June 24, 1995, and held in a concealed cell in the cellar of Dutroux's house at Marcinelle.[^1] While Dutroux was in prison on a separate charge from December 13, 1995, to March 20, 1996, the two girls starved to death; Martin testified that she had been too frightened to go into the cellar to feed them.[^1][^2] She was arrested with Dutroux and [Michel Lelievre](/people/michel-lelievre/) on August 12, 1996.[^1]

On June 17, 2004, the jury at Arlon convicted her of taking part in a criminal association engaged in abducting and sequestering children, and of the sequestration of [Laetitia Delhez](/people/laetitia-delhez/), [Sabine Dardenne](/people/sabine-dardenne/), [An Marchal](/people/an-marchal/), [Eefje Lambrecks](/people/eefje-lambrecks/), Melissa and Julie, with the aggravating circumstance for Julie and Melissa that their detention was accompanied by torture causing death, and for some counts of death threats. She was also convicted of the rape of Yancka Mackova, having admitted putting the antipsychotic Haldol in the young woman's food. The jury rejected her defense that she had committed no positive act of participation.[^3] She was sentenced to 30 years.[^4] Martin apologized to the court for not feeding Julie and Melissa. Dutroux accused [Jean-Michel Nihoul](/people/jean-michel-nihoul/) of being his link to a ring kidnapping girls in eastern Europe for prostitution, a scenario the prosecutors said they had found no evidence for; the jury acquitted Nihoul of the abduction charges and adopted the view that Dutroux had acted as an isolated predator.[^2][^3]

Martin was granted early release in 2012 after serving 16 years and moved to a convent. She was released without conditions in August 2022.[^4]

[^1]: Chambre des Représentants de Belgique. *Enquête parlementaire sur la manière dont l'enquête, dans ses volets policiers et judiciaires, a été menée dans l'affaire Dutroux-Nihoul et consorts,* rapport, Doc. 713/6-96/97, April 18, 1997, table 4 and the chronologies of December 1995 to August 1996; translated from the French. https://www.dekamer.be/FLWB/PDF/49/0713/49K0713006.pdf
[^2]: "Notorious child rapist-murderer convicted." NBC News and Associated Press, June 17, 2004. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna5233011
[^3]: "Nihoul acquitté pour les enlèvements." *La Dernière Heure,* June 17, 2004; translated from the French. https://www.dhnet.be/actu/faits/2004/06/17/nihoul-acquitte-pour-les-enlevements-MF73NPYQVBC25I2Y6P54BXIQDA/
[^4]: "Former wife of child killer Marc Dutroux to be a free woman without conditions." VRT NWS, August 24, 2022. https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/en/2022/08/24/former-wife-of-child-killer-marc-dutroux-to-be-released-without/