On the run: Suspect in “Tattoo Killer” case slices off ankle monitor

Cor P., a suspected member of the alleged murder-for-hire squad "Tattoo Killers", cut off his ankle monitor on Tuesday and is now on the run, the Public Prosecutor said on Thursday in a hearing against four suspected "Tattoo Killers". The squad derives its name from the large Chinese symbols its members have tattooed on their backs."He has disappeared," the Public Prosecutor said about the 38-year-old man, AD reports.

Four suspected Tattoo Killers are on trial for the murder of Onno Kuun, a member of the same gang. Life sentences were demanded against suspects Cor and 32-year-old Brian P., brothers from Schiedam, 45-year-old Henk S. from Leeuwarden, and 38-year-old Evert S. from Leerdam. The court was expected to rule in May last year, but the ruling was postponed for further investigation.

Cor P. was allowed to await the ruling in conditional freedom. One of the conditions was that he wear an ankle monitor, which he cut off on Tuesday and disappeared below the radar.

P.'s nickname in the underworld is "De Paling", or "The Eel" in English, according to AD. He got this nickname because he managed to escape the Dutch authorities multiple times. In one planned arrest, he managed to escape the police by squeezing through a toilet window. He once jumped out of the detention bus during a transport to court. And once when a cop grabbed him on Oude Sluis in Schiedam, he shot the cop in the back, jumped into the Schie and swam to the other side.

Onno Kuut's body was found in the dunes of Hoek van Holland in March 2009. He had been tortured and his throat was cut. According to AD, it is believed that he was killed because he inadvertently killed a second victim during an assignation job and thus endangered the other members of the Tattoo Killers.