Man from Vlaanderen who murdered his ex in Delft sentenced to 27 years in prison

The court in The Hague sentenced the 32-year-old Juanito V. To 27 years in prison and mandatory treatment in a TBS psychiatric institution for the fatal stabbing of his ex-girlfriend. The Public Prosecutor had demanded 23 years in prison with mandatory treatment in a TBS psychiatric institution against the suspect from Vlaanderen. “The severity of the facts deserves a higher punishment,” the court added.

The 33-year-old victim was murdered in broad daylight on the Fifth of February of last year. The victim had broken up with V. shortly before the incident. After which he finished a boxing lesson before driving from Antwerp to Delft carrying two knives. The woman was stabbed a total of 26 times in the front garden of a huis on the Frederik van Eedenlaan. Her then six year old daughter was a witness. “Mum don’t die,” the girl said. “This must have been the last thing her mother heard when she told her daughter to call 112,” the court president outlined.

The court says that two attempts of murder were proven and also a murder charge was proven. V. sent a good friend of his a message on the way to Delft where he wrote, “I want that one finished first and then myself.” The court says that “that one” refers to the victim. According to the court, this constitutes planned action and, therefore, premeditated murder.According to the court, V. "brutally took the life of" his ex-girlfriend. He stabbed the victim "in a disgusting manner" after the stepfather and mother were out of the picture.

The suspect, who was arrested after a chase in Belgium, wrote on Facebook on the way to Antwerp that he had stabbed three people, “one of which is the person that I loved. I couldn’t handle the fact that she left me.”

The court blames V. for not being open about the case. He said that he could not remember anything while he told his brother in a phone call that was tapped that he remembered everything. “With this he showed that he does not care about the relatives and that they are left with questions,” according to the court, which imposed a higher sentence than the Public Prosecution Service had demanded partly for this reason.

V. was not present at the verdict. The court would have preferred that he was.