Murdered Anne Faber's dad calls for Prosecutor's resignation

Wim Faber, father of murdered Anne Faber, wants prosecutor Rinus Otte to step down. He believes that the rape and murder of his daughter could have been prevented if the court sentenced suspect Michael P. to institutionalized psychiatric treatment when he was first given jail time for raping two underage girls, Faber wrote in an open letter in the Volkskrant.

Anne Faber went missing while out cycling in September last year. She was found raped and murdered nearly two weeks after she disappeared. Her body was found in Zeewolde based on information from Michael P., who later confessed to raping and killing her. At the time P. was living in a psychiatric institute in Den Dolder, being prepared for his return to society after serving nearly two thirds of the prison sentence he received for raping two underage girls.

Wim Faber studied the documents of the lawsuit against P. in 2010 and the appeal in 2012. Rinus Otte was president of the court at the time. In 2010 the court sentenced P. to 16 years in prison for raping the two girls and multiple robberies. In 2012 his sentence was reduced to 11 years on appeal. "During the reading I found signals from which it can be deduced that P. was already dangerous at that time", Faber said in his open letter. "In short, there were plenty of signs that the man was disturbed." Despite these signals, and the Pieter Baan Center saying that P. refused to cooperate in psychiatric examination, the court not only did not sentence him to institutionalized treatment, but also reduced his prison sentence.

Faber is looking "for the answer to the question why his daughter was murdered", his lawyer Ruth Jager said to RTL Nieuws. "The rapes for which he was convicted were really gruesome", Jager said. "Experts say that on the basis of this alone he could have been given institutionalized psychiatric treatment, but this did not happen." Faber also thinks that the members of the court were "insufficiently critical" when dealing with P.'s appeal, the lawyer said.

The members of the court did not take into account that society should be protected against P. when they reduced his sentence on appeal, according to the lawyer. "The facts were terribly disturbed, but the defendant did not want to cooperate in an examination by the Pieter Baan Center. Judges have their own responsibility and can also impose institutionalized psychiatric treatment. But Wim does not see in the judgment that the court made this decision. The judges should have been more critical in his convictions."

Faber is focuses specifically on Otte "because he stumbled on statements by Otte indicating that he has a certain biased opinion about institutionalized psychiatric treatment", Jager said to the broadcaster. According to the lawyer, Ottte was "very critical" of this measure during a seminar. "That makes Wim start to think that Otte's personal opinion was why no institutionalized psychiatric treatment was imposed in this case."