Ex reported Groningen cinema murders suspect for stalking multiple times: report

Ergun S., the man suspected of killing cleaners Gina and Marinus in the Pathe cinema in Groningen on Saturday, stalked his ex-girlfriend for years, she said to newspaper AD. She reported him to the police multiple times. "But the police always say that they are only texts, that they cannot prove that he is really after me", she said.

The 26-year-old woman has a daughter with S. She asked the newspaper not to reveal her name, nor where in the province of Groningen she lives. "I know for sure that he was in Groningen for me. That has happened before. Including once in the area where I was", she said.

She dated S. five years ago, but she broke off the relationship because S. was often violent with her. The breakup happened around six weeks after their daughter was born. According to her, the 33-year-old man always struggled with psychosis. "He just never took his medication", she said. "He is crazy, he has always been dangerous. And not only if he had a psychosis, you cannot have a psychosis for five years."

After the breakup she first moved to an address not far from Rotterdam, but decided to move as far away as possible after S. kept showing up at her home. She initially tried to allow S. visiting rights to their child. "I wanted to, in a safe environment. After all, he is my daughter's father." But it didn't work out. She decided to break contact, and has been in hiding from him for years.

"He has been stalking me ever since. He is furious that I have taken his daughter, his honor. That's how he sees it. I will spare you what he said he would do to me. I reported him for stalking and threats several times. I also saved all those messages. But the police always say that they are only texts, that they cannot prove that he is really after me", she said to the newspaper.

"He came to my neighborhood once, but then he told the police that he was going to a party. That is not possible at all, because he does not know anyone here, but they cannot prove that it isn't so. I walked around with a panic button for a while after he was arrested in the neighborhood."

She called the murders of the Gina and Marinus terrible. "That this happens now, just out of his sheer frustration or something. He doesn't know those people in the cinema at all. It really is all so terrible."

The police came to get her and took her to a hidden location the moment Ergun S. was identified as a suspect in the murders. "I didn't know why. Yes, I thought it was related to him again, but nobody told me then that he was behind the cinema murders. I was really in shock when I heard that. How terrible for those people and their relatives."

Ergun S.'s family also told AD that the man has mental health problems.