He killed his ex-girlfriend of 15 and a mother of six, because she had ‘laughed with him’: how Willy Deleu, the butcher of Menen, could still strike even in prison | The best crimes of the past 50 years

“There’s a dead woman in my studio.” Like a zombie, Willy Deleu had wandered around Kortrijk for days in 1997, until he entered the police station. He scared everyone there. For the horse butcher from Menen it was already his second murder. Moreover, it would not prove to be his last violent crime. “I tried to fathom him, but Deleu barely let that happen. Until he lifted a corner of the veil himself after the first day of the trial,” says lawyer Chris Vandenbogaerde (68), who defended him during the assize trial in June 1999.