Community service for Urk man who hit journalist with his car

A 35-year-old man from Urk was sentenced to 80 hours of community service by the police judge in Lelystad on Tuesday for hitting a journalist with his car in March, NOS reports.

The incident happened at the Sion church in Urk on March 28. PowNed reporter Mark Baanders was there with other journalists, reporting on the church allowing full capacity despite coronavirus restrictions limiting religious gatherings to a maximum of 30 people at the time. The church also did not require attendees to maintain social distancing or wear a face mask, as the coronavirus rules were then. 

The 35-year-old man, Jacob B., arrived at church that Sunday with his daughter and pulled into the parking space where Baanders was standing. The journalist had to jump out of the way. When B. got out, he knocked the microphone out of the reporter's hands.

During his hearing, B. claimed that he did not do anything wrong. He said that he did not see the journalist when he puled into the parking space.

The judge did not believe that. "You knowingly drove on and accepted the chance that you would injure the reporter. It could have been a lot worse," the judge said. The judge also did not believe that B. didn't know it was a reporter he drove into. The fact that B. did not hit the journalist hard, was taken into account. 

The sentence corresponds to what the Public Prosecutor demanded.

Last week, two brothers from Urk were sentenced to 150 hours of community service for assaulting the same journalist. One also has to pay 250 euros in damages to a camera man he attacked.