A Belgian court Monday turned down a request by notorious child sex killer Marc Dutroux for early release from prison to serve out the rest of his sentence at home under electronic surveillance. The ruling against Belgium's "most hated man" cited the risk he might offend again after being jailed for life in 2004 for the kidnap and rape between June 1995 and August 1996 of six young and teenage girls, four of whom died.

A Belgian court Monday turned down a request by notorious child sex killer Marc Dutroux for early release from prison to serve out the rest of his sentence at home under electronic surveillance. The ruling against Belgium's "most hated man," cited the risk he might offend again after being jailed for life in 2004 for the kidnap and rape between June 1995 and August 1996 of six young and teenage girls, four of whom died. bur/bmm/txw

Belgium's notorious serial paedophile killer Marc Dutroux asked a special court for early release Monday after serving 16 years of a life sentence for the kidnap, rape and gruesome murder of several young girls. The 56-year-old, the country's most reviled criminal, was escorted under heavy surveillance from a high-security prison to the central Brussels courthouse as a helicopter hovered overhead and 125 officers stood guard over the court building.

Here is a chronology of events in the case of Marc Dutroux, the Belgian "monster" serving a life sentence for a horrific spree of abductions, rapes and murders of schoolgirls. Dutroux, who appeared Monday before a special court seeking to be released and placed under house arrest with an electronic tag, was found guilty in June 2004 of abducting and raping six girls, four of whom died. He had previously been jailed in 1989 for 13 years for the abduction and rape of five girls, but was freed in 1992. 1995