Three arrested for helping prisoner escape Nijmegen psychiatric institution

The police arrested three suspects from Bergschenhoek, near Rotterdam, who helped a prisoner escape from the forensic psychiatric institution Pompekliniek in Nijmegen last Wednesday. Among the detainees are a 38-year-old woman, a 19-year-old man, and a 16-year-old boy, according to the police.

The 31-year-old prisoner escaped on Wednesday during supervised leave when he walked in the Hatert shopping center. He took off around 11 a.m. and ran with an accomplice in the direction of a parking lot, where they presumably got into a car.

Police say they do not know which direction the getaway car was heading. Descriptions of a number of suspected accomplices have been distributed in the hope that people have more information.

The escaped prisoner is suspected of then stabbing a 27-year-old woman that afternoon in Soest. A few hours later, a special police team arrested the escaped prisoner in Bergschenhoek near Rotterdam.

According to the police, there was a relationship between the prisoner and the stabbed woman. For that reason, police suspect the stabbing was a case of domestic violence. The man had been in prison for manslaughter since 2018 after he was convicted of killing a woman in Rotterdam, for which he was sentenced to eight years in prison and court-mandated psychiatric treatment in an institution.