Prosecutors want to reverse conviction in decades-old murder
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The Public Prosecution Service has recommended that the man convicted of killing Regie van den Hoogen in a Rosmalen apartment in 2000 be acquitted of the crime during proceedings on Monday. According to the Public Prosecution Service (OM), there is no conclusive evidence against suspect Rob B., who is now 64 years old. A new, extensive investigation eviscerated the case on which B. was convicted years ago. The Arnhem Court of Appeal is reviewing the case on behalf of the Supreme Court.
Van den Hoogen was in a relationship with B. when she died at the age of 37. He found the woman on the morning of 10 April 2000 with her throat slit in the hallway of their shared flat in the Hintham district of Rosmalen, which is now part of the municipality of Den Bosch.
B. immediately alerted authorities to the death, and was arrested as a suspect that same day. The man has always denied that he was involved in Van den Hoogen’s death, saying he believed she took her own life. A district court and then later the Court of Appeal in Den Bosch nevertheless found the evidence against B. convincing, and convicted him of manslaughter.
Both B. and the victim were struggling with psychiatric problems at the time. Because of that, B. was found not culpable for the murder. He was sentenced to mandatory treatment and incarceration in a psychiatric institution which ended in 2017.
B.'s conviction relied mainly on the findings of experts at the time, who concluded that the victim could not have killed herself, but that someone else must have done it. It was up to the OM to determine if they wanted to proceed with the case; It did not have to be proven that she wanted to die, as it may have been the case that the woman intended to cut something out of her neck while under the influence of delusions.
In 2015, the Gerede Twijfel project, led by legal psychologist Peter van Koppen, published an investigation into the Rosmalen flat murder. The researchers concluded that self-inflicted wounds were the most likely cause of Van den Hoogen’s death.
The man's lawyer has always been convinced of his client's innocence. He had several experts study the case file. The results of research by the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) supported the conclusion that suicide is more likely than murder or manslaughter. "This case serves as an example of how it the judiciary should not do things," said the lawyer. Van den Hoogen was "the great love of his life,” said Van der Kruijs of his client. B. had no reason to harm her, he continued.
According to B., the police and the OM suffered from "tunnel vision". The case has "scarred him for life," he said before the court on Monday. "My life has been taken from me." He was overcome with emotions several times during the session. In his final statement, B. said that he did not want to remain angry with the justice system for much longer. "We must be able to forgive each other.
This also convinced the Advocate General at the Supreme Court, who advised that the case be reviewed based on the results of the new investigation. After that, a professor of forensic medicine also concluded that suicide is the most likely scenario. In October 2020, the Supreme Court determined that the case must be reviewed and referred it to the Arnhem/Leeuwarden Court of Appeal for that purpose.
The court will issue a ruling on 5 September. If the court acquits B., the case will be added to a list of miscarriages of justice, such as the rape and murder of flight attendant Christel Ambrosius, where two of the three men convicted were acquitted on appeal after spending seven years in prison, the OM said. They received roughly 1.8 million euros in compensation from the State.
The prosecutors also named Lucia de B., a pediatric nurse convicted two decades ago initially of murdering four patients and attempting to kill several others. On appeal, she was convicted of seven murders, and three counts of attempted murder, leading to a life conviction. The prosecutors’ case was later determined to be based on faulty scientific and medical reasoning, and the expert witness testimony about the astronomical statistical likelihood of the deaths happening on De B.’s watch was also debunked. Her conviction was overturned nearly seven years after receiving a life sentence. The compensation she received from the State was considered confidential.
The OM also referenced the murder of 10-year-old Nienke Kleiss, who was killed in a park in Schiedam in 2000. Cees B. was convicted of manslaughter, and for stabbing the victim's 11-year-old friend, Maikel. He was convicted on the basis of a false confession which he repeatedly recanted, even though the statements in the confession did not match statements given by Maikel. Another man, Wik H., confessed to the crimes four years after B. went to prison.
Police were forced to reevaluate their interrogation techniques as a result, and had to come up with a different approach to victim care because of the harsh treatment Maikel endured from investigators. B. later received 600,000 euros in compensation, and Maikel was awarded an undisclosed amount.
Reporting by ANP and NL Times