Janssen has confessed to the murder of 18-year-old Annick Van Uytsel, who went missing from Diest in 2007 and whose body was later found in a canal, and to the murders early this year of Shana Appeltans and Kevin Paulus from Halen, Limburg province. Shana was Janssen’s neighbour, and Kevin was her boyfriend.

Janssen has also confessed to a number of earlier rapes, which will be treated in a separate trial later. Janssen, who refuses to be photographed or drawn by illustrators, and his lawyer gave a different version of the events in 2007 and 2010. The former teacher no longer says that he tied Annick up and transported her in his van. Instead he says that he was drunk, doesn’t remember the event and even suggested that Annick went with him voluntarily. He also changed his story on the actual murders of both Annick and Shana and Kevin. His earlier confessions, he said, were only meant to relieve the families’ pain.

Some relatives found Janssen’s words unbearable and left the court in tears. The trial continues this week.