Prosecutor demands 18-year sentence for man who murdered his ex-lover in Spaarnwoude

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) demanded an 18-year prison sentence and compulsory psychiatric treatment for Cetin K. at the court in Haarlem on Tuesday for the murder of Angela de Beer. The 35-year-old woman from Amsterdam was shot in the head in the night from June 14 to June 15 last year in the Spaarnwoude recreational area. Her body was found by the police in a ditch a few hours later.

The 42-year-old man denied all charges. He was having an extramarital affair with the victim. The prosecutor claimed he abused and terrorized the woman for years, and her attempt to extricate herself from the relationship likely led to her death. The OM also said that it is proven that K. inflicted severe burns on her, a few months before her death, while in Turkey. During that incident, the woman was tied up and doused with a flammable liquid. An autopsy revealed numerous previous injuries, including a series of fractures.

De Beer called her parents in a panic just before she was shot dead, around 3:00 a.m., while already in the ditch. After the call was cut off, her parents contacted the police. K., a married Amsterdam resident and father of four, was arrested on the same day. He is also said to have been violent within his marriage, according to the Public Prosecution Service.

The evidence against the suspect includes DNA traces on a glove and on a bullet casing, both found at the scene of the crime. Two witnesses saw K. and the victim arguing shortly before the murder. The fact that K. brought gloves in addition to the pistol indicates, according to the Public Prosecutor, that he planned to kill the woman. This intention is also evident from a long series of text messages leading up to the violence. "I will never leave you alone, Angela, you do realize that, darling?" K. wrote in one such message. "So if it's not me, it will be no one else."

The prosecutor argued that the case has all the typical elements of a “femicide.” Femicide generally refers to the killing of a woman or girl, usually by a man, where gender is considered to be a motivating factor in the murder. "Coercive control, isolation, humiliation, and not accepting the end of the relationship. Escalating violence and, finally, an inevitable end,” the OM wrote about the case.

K. only partially cooperated with a personality assessment, preventing experts from providing advice regarding the compulsory psychiatric treatment measure. Nevertheless, the Public Prosecution Service believes that he must receive psychiatric treatment, as it is "unacceptable" to allow K. "to return to society untreated."

The court will announce its verdict on November 21.