Families of children abducted, raped and murdered by a notorious Belgian paedophile have voiced anger after his lawyer sent them letters in an attempt to help "heal their wounds."

Marc Dutroux has been in prison since 2004, serving a life term for kidnapping, torturing and abusing six young girls in Belgium in 1995 and 1996 - and murdering four of them.

Two of his victims were just eight years old and the case sent shockwaves around the world, both due to the horrific nature of his crimes and a series of police blunders which delayed his arrest.

Detectives searched one of his houses while the two eight-year-old girls were being held there, but left the premises without finding them and they later starved to death in a makeshift dungeon.

The killer has spent much of his time behind bars trying to secure an early release, but has previously been denied a request to spend the rest of his life sentence at home under electronic surveillance because of fears he might re-offend.

Letters

And now, in what has been seen by several relatives of those he killed as a cynical bid to gain parole, the 61-year-old has had letters written to the bereaved families to offer to answer any questions they may have about what happened.

The Brussels Times reports that the document - sent by a lawyer on behalf of Dutroux - offers to try to help "heal their wounds, in some very modest way."

Jean Lambrecks, the father of one of his victims, told the newspaper it was "a major publicity stunt."

"As was to be expected, it's a major publicity stunt by a lawyer with plenty of time and few clients," he said.

"It's a pamphlet without any sense. The letter wasn't even translated."

"Moral torture"

His partner, Els Schreurs, added: "If I were Marc Dutroux, I would start looking for another lawyer, because this is only causing damage."

Another father of one of the girls, Jean-Denis Lejeune, described the note as "moral torture."

Writing on Facebook, he denounced it as part of a "game" and said there was "no room for dialogue" with the killer.

The rejection of the letters means any hope Dutroux had of them increasing his chances of being allowed out of prison on parole will have taken a significant hit.

Under Belgian law, criminals can be freed after serving a third of their sentences, or after 15 years in the case of those who have been jailed for life.

IRN ...