The court in The Hague has sentenced Arnold O. on Wednesday to five years in prison and compulsory psychiatric treatment. In July last year, the man killed his girlfriend by stabbing her 258 times with a knife in her home in Zoetermeer.
The verdict is not in line with the Public Prosecution Service (OM) demand. The OM had demanded ten years in prison and compulsory psychiatric treatment.
According to the court, the crime “absolutely belongs to the outer category in terms of violence and gruesomeness”. According to experts, O. was psychotic at the time of the crime. The court considers him to be partially accountable.
O. committed the crime in the presence of their two-week-old baby. He filmed the 22-year-old woman during the stabbing with her own phone. Then he took a selfie with the baby, who remained unharmed. He later stated that he took the photo because he would not see the baby for a long time.
At the time of the photo, the police were already at the door. They were alerted by a nurse from the consultation center, who was going to visit mother and child. O. was arrested on the spot.
O. had previously been convicted of assaulting the victim. He had just been released from a prison sentence of ninety days a month.
The perpetrator accused his girlfriend of cheating. In addition, he thought that possibly not him, but another man was the father of the baby. But according to the public prosecutor, nothing points to this. “It was in his head, it was a delusion.”
The victim’s family was concerned about the poor relationship. They were about to accommodate her with family in Belgium. The suspect and the victim already lived separately.