Lawyer: Suspect begged police for help before politician's murder

The 39-year old Bart van U., suspected of former Minister Els Borst's murder, voluntarily appeared at the Rotterdam police station several times, including two weeks before the elder statesman's murder, his lawyer said Friday. He asked for help and for the police to lock him away, "otherwise it is not going to end well," AD reported on Friday. Van U. recently confessed to murdering his sister. A forensic report indicates she was stabbed forty times, though Van U. later said it was in self defense. Her body was found on January 10 at their home in Oudedijk, Zuid-Holland. Van U. turned himself in on January 12 in Amsterdam. Van U. told this to his lawyer, Noëlle Pieters, after his first public hearing and according to the suspect reported himself to the police multiple times requesting them to put him in jail. The police ignored his requests, she claims. Rotterdam District Court ruled on Friday morning that the police should make a list of all instances Van U. reported himself and asked for help or to be put away. Separately, Pieters also requested a new psychiatrist be assigned to work with Van U.'s because of problems between the defendant and his current court-ordered evaluator. A disturbed man, presumably Van U., appeared at the Doelwater police station in Rotterdam on January 25th, 2014, but even after examining the man, the crisis services team let him go. Four days after the incident, a man, possibly Van U., rang the doorbell of Els Borst asking for the addresses of the former Prime Ministers Wim Kok and Jan Peter Balkenende, Borst reportedly told a confidant. On February 10th she was found dead at her garage, likely killed two days earlier.