I Choose to Live

by Sabine Dardenne

Book Overview

I lived through the Dutroux affair from the inside, and all these years I have kept silent about it - about my 'personal' Dutroux Affair, my time in the company of the most hated psychopath in Belgium. I need to write this book for three reasons: so that people stop giving me strange looks and treating me like a curiosity; so that no one ever asks me any more questions ever again; and so that the judicial system never again frees a paedophile for...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1844082687
• ISBN13: 9781844082681
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Virago Press (UK)
• Length: 213 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.0" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

A harrowing but inspirational story

Belgium became the focus of international attention in the nineties because of one psychopath's notorious crimes against children. The book is not about his life, crimes and trial in general (look elsewhere for such a book), but it is the personal story of one victim who somehow survived his kidnap and abuse. Sabine Dardenne spent eighty days in his captivity and has had to live with the consequent public and media attention in the years since. Sabine's book explains some things that other books could not cover, since only she and the psychopath knew the facts. Even things that can be explained elsewhere come from a different perspective. While much here is deeply disturbing, Sabine's survival and return to something like a normal life should act as an inspiration to us all. Sabine wrote the book partly in the hope that people would stop giving her strange looks or asking her questions about the case. Even more important to Sabine, she wrote the book in the hope that politicians, lawyers and judges would tighten their policies on psychopaths and paedophiles, especially when considering early release from prison. Sabine's captor already had a long criminal record and he'd been given early release for good behavior prior to his series of kidnaps. Whether this book achieves any or all of those objectives, only time will tell. Nevertheless, Sabine is determined to put the past behind her and lead as normal a life as possible. Sabine tells us the harrowing story of her time in captivity and the abuse she suffered. A novelist might go into graphic detail to dramatize the events, but while Sabine makes it very clear what took place, she avoids any more detail than is absolutely necessary. Sabine wanted no drama, the detail being too painful and too personal. Aged twelve, Sabine was cycling to school one day when she was kidnapped and taken to a filthy house where she was held captive in truly disgusting conditions. Nobody had witnessed Sabine's disappearance, nor has any trace ever been found of the bicycle, so there were no clues for the police to go on. At the time, Sabine assumed that she was the psychopath's only victim and eventually started pestering him to allow her to have some company. The psychopath decided to kidnap somebody else (Laetitia Delhez) and this ultimately proved his undoing, as there were witnesses to that kidnap who told the police. When the police came a few days later to rescue Laetitia, they were pleasantly surprised to find Sabine as well. The public and media attention would have been bad enough to deal with, especially in a small country without a history of previous cases (Belgians thought that this sort of thing happened in Britain and America, but not their little country), but there were other issues to confront. Sabine survived but four of the psychopath's other captives (Julie Lejeunne, Melissa Russo, An Marchal, Eefje Lambrecks) hadn't, so whenever Sabine and the parents of those victims were in the same room, i

Overcoming the past

Everyone should read this book written by one of the victims of the Belgian child molester and muderer Marc Dutroux.Sabine Dardenne tells her story without seeking cheap sensationalism and obviously strives to come to terms with her horrible plight and concentrate on the here and now and the positive aspects the future may hold in store.

Unadorned, honest account of 80 terrible days

While reading this, and afterward, I just wanted to say to Sabine - Forgive Yourself! You are not the author of anyone elses fate. In now way were the author of anyone elses fate - Laetitia was not Kidnapped because of what you said. Dutroux was a horrendous excuse for a human being and did what he wanted with no reference to anyone elses needs. Your 12 year old terror and loneliness was just another excuse to weave a tale of guilt around you! This is the bare and honest story of Sabine Dardenne, one of two survivors of Belgian paedophile, Marc Dutroux. She spent 80 days in his captivity, and while the details are (thankfully) not given in detail, the sheer horror of being a 12 year old child and subjected to the physical and emotional torment she suffered is enough to horrify. Sabine was snatched off the street by Dutroux, the Slug as she later calls him, and his wife. That a woman with children could be complicit in this appalls me but she was responsible for at least two earlier deaths of young children kidnapped by Dutroux when she failed to feed them. But Sabine was not aware of this. Taken by Dutroux she was forced to live in a small cell and basement, eat horrendous food, and assaulted by him. She was not allowed to wash often nor was her cell or environment kept clean so she gradually became more and more unkempt. Once when Dutroux went away there was a power cut, trapped in her stinking cell, 6 feet by 3 feet wide and not tall enough for a short 12 year old to stand up in. She panicked, her only light and ventilation failed - a 12 year old girl alone. Luckily it came on again shortly afterwards. In her loneliness and desparation she wrote long letters to her mother. Dutroux had told her that He was holding her safe from a gang of terrible men, torturers who would take pleasure in killing her in terrible ways, and that she should never call out and onlyrespond to his voice. She believed these stories, she also believed him when he said her parents weren't cooperating with them over paying a ransom, they couldn't afford it and other disgusting lies which made her desparate. In her loneliness she asked Dutroux for a friend, an idle suggestion, but one be must have been already considering and enjoying. Soon afterwards he turned up with another child, Laetitia kidnapped from another Belgian town. She was to be directly the author of his downfall. IN his stupidity he was seen, along with his van and other details. He was tracked down and 6 days later the girls were rescued. The brain washing of Sabine was so complete she could not comprehend that Laetitia had seen missing posters of her in her town. Nor really understand that her family, in fact teh whole of Belgium was desperate to find her. Painfully Sabine catalogues the post kidnap years. The troubled home life which followed, the typical teenage behaviour, the struggle for acceptance which would probably have happened with her family whether or not she had been kidnapped. She al

Engrossing and Fascinating

"I Choose To Live" describes the ordeal that Sabine Dardenne went through living as the captive of a pedophile for 80 days. Sabine is such an honest, brave, and inspirational person that to read in her own words about the ordeal and how she dealt with it was very inspirational and very fascinating. I couldn't put the book down and really found myself marvelling at her courage and her refusal to look at herself as a victim. I never imagined that there were people like her. People who could go through the most horrible abuse and come out strong and well-grounded. Hats off to her. By the way, there weren't any detailed descriptions of the rapes so that made it easier to read (although there were some disturbing parts to the book, of course).

The Will to Survive

On 28 May 1996 twelve-year-old Sabine Dardenne was kidnapped by the man who turned out to be one of Belgium's most heinous paedophiles. She was his prisoner for eighty long days. 'I need to write this book for three reasons: so that people stop giving me strange looks and treating me like a curiosity; so that no one asks me any more questions ever again; and so that the judicial system never again frees a paedophile for "good behaviour".' 'The Dutroux Affair' shook the whole of Europe. In the middle of the immense machinery of investigation and justice there was Sabine Dardenne hrself, Dutroux's last victim. She was held captive for eighty days, and astonishly she survived. Far from sensationalizing the horror, her story, dignified and restrained, is ultimately uplifting. Says Sabine Dardenne: 'I choose to live'. -- from book's back cover