“I am one of the few lucky enough to escape such a murderer. Telling this story is a necessity for me and if I have the courage to reconstruct this hellhole, it is mainly so that judges don't release pedophiles halfway through their prison term for 'good behavior', and without any warning.'

Sabine Dardenne is twelve years old when she is dragged off her bicycle by Marc Dutroux and his accomplice, drugged in a van and taken to an unknown house. What Sabine Dardenne has to endure there is terrible. She has to undress, Dutroux puts a necklace around her neck and binds her to a bed with it. "I said the chain was too tight, but Dutroux said he could still put his fist in."

After a few days, Sabine is taken to a cellar, where she is repeatedly harassed by Dutroux in the time that follows. At the end of her captivity she is joined by Laetitia Delhez and a few days later the girls are freed by the police. Sabinne Dardenne has waited eight years to tell us what she went through.

I Was Twelve and I Cycled to School is an extraordinary testimony of an unprecedentedly strong young woman who spent eighty days in captivity before being rescued from death. Sabine Dardenne wrote this book so that the voice of the victims will finally be heard and the fascination with these monsters will disappear forever.