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Mariska Peters (Picture: Twitter/@Stuitervrouw)
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Mariska Peters (Picture: Twitter/@Stuitervrouw)
Wednesday, 20 April 2016 - 16:20
Courtroom gallery shouts "murderer," "pervert" at man accused of niece's killing
The Public Prosecutor demanded 15 years in prison followed by institutionalized psychiatric treatment against Johan P. in the court in Arnhem on Wednesday. P. is standing trial for strangling his 21-year-old niece Mariska to death in February last year.
The courtroom, packed with the victim's friends and family members, broke out in shouts and jeers when P. arrived. "Murderer" and "filthy pervert" could be heard, according to reporter Harm Graat tweeting from within the courtroom. The room broke out in havoc again when P. stated that he doesn't plan to say anything. "You can ask me what you want. I will keep invoking my right to remain silent", he said.
Emotions ran very high when Mariska's father Marcel had his chance to speak, to the point where he had to be restrained. "Motherfucker, I'll kill you, you wait. You took my child away", he yelled at his brother. While reading a prepared letter, he broke into sobs. "Why did you so brutally tear my daughter from life? A piece of our heart is gone."
P. stands accused of forcing his niece to perform oral sex on him after the two allegedly met to discuss delivery of a drug shipment. She had a debt of about a thousand euros, and the defendant offered to pay her several hundred euros to assist him when they met at her grandmother's gravesite, the prosecutor claimed.
Worried that Mariska would report him for the sexual assault, he then killed her and loosely covered her under leaves and branches, the prosecutor continued. There were traces of P.'s semen in Mariska's mouth, his DNA were on her clothes and her blood was in his car. Both his and Mariska's phones were localized by towers near Hatertse Vennen, where Mariska's body was found.
Following the murder, he allegedly drove his car back to the neighborhood where she lived and walked back to the psychiatric institution where he stayed. The psychiatric clinic where P. resided could not say whether he was gone that night, but according to the police, he could easily have left unseen through a window.
Afterwards, he showed no remorse. He left his family believing that their daughter and niece was kidnapped and even participated in her funeral procession. He was only arrested after his DNA was found on his murdered niece.
P.'s brothers describe him as a "certified liar with a great lust for women", who would become violent when he didn't get his way. In 1985 and 1990 P. was convicted of rape and in 2004 of incest and abuse.