Prisoner convicted of trying to stab ex-girlfriend to death after escape from custody

The District Court in Utrecht sentenced 33-year-old Kendrick M. to ten years in prison on Tuesday for the attempted manslaughter of his ex-girlfriend after he escaped while on supervised leave from a psychiatric prison facility. M. got away during a supervised outing from the Pompekliniek in Nijmegen. He then travelled straight to Soest and stabbed the woman in her home.

The woman survived the stabbing, which happened in front of the victim's five-year-old son. The Public Prosecution Service had recommended 18 years in prison for attempted murder. The court ruled that there was insufficient evidence to suggest the attack was premeditated.

The court also denied M.'s argument that he acted in self-defense. The court said it believed investigators, who said M. took the knife out of the kitchen himself before stabbing the victim 12 times. He also shouted that he was going to kill the woman.

M. was incarcerated after a 20-year-old woman in 2012 in Rotterdam. She was his girlfriend at the time. He was sentenced to eight years in prison and ordered to undergo mandatory treatment in a TBS psychiatric institution, which often include supervised or unsupervised leave to help cut down on recidivism by reintroducing the prisoner to society.

He escaped while a guard accompanied him to a store in Nijmegen. The man got into a car that had been readied nearby and was driven to Soest.

The stabbing happened during a probationary period for his last offense. The prosecution had demanded revocation of the conditional release, and the court granted that demand. M. will have to spend another 1,037 days in jail linked to the 2012 crime, on top of the ten-year jail sentence.

The TBS measure, which was imposed in the earlier case, will continue. Specialists think the danger of an incident like this occurring again is high, or extremely high.

A 17-year-old boy aided M. in his escape. The court sentenced him to eight months in juvenile detention, which he has already served in pre-trial detention. He was also ordered to undergo TBS treatment, but with fewer restrictions.

The court acquitted him of aiding and abetting the assault on M's former girlfriend. The court said that it was proven that the boy did not bring a weapon despite M. asking him to do so. The boy's sentencing was also tied to another case where he was accused of owning a converted gas pistol in violation of weapons possession laws.