Maximum sentences for Amsterdam teens who beat trucker to death with concrete tile

The court in Amsterdam has sentenced two boys aged 14 and 16 to one year of juvenile detention and juvenile psychiatric treatment on Friday for beating a 42-year-old man to death with a concrete tile in Amsterdam-Noord and several other violent crimes. The suspects were 13 and 15 years old at the time. The sentences imposed are the maximum possible and match the Public Prosecution Service’s (OM) demand.

The victim, a truck driver and father of four, was found seriously injured on the NDSM square during the early hours of August 27 last year. A 17-kilogram concrete tile was on his head. Emergency services rushed him to a hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries a few days later.

A day after killing the man in Amsterdam, the youngest suspect kicked a sleeping homeless man hard in the head near the train station in Tilburg while the older suspect filmed the violence. The victim was seriously injured. The younger boy also threatened to rob a woman with a knife at the station.

The two also robbed two women at the NDSM site by kicking them off their bikes. They also kicked a third woman off her bike and tried to rob her, but failed.

“The two minor boys committed a series of very serious criminal offenses in just over a week,” the Amsterdam court said. “The boys deliberately chose physically weaker victims each time, including young women who were alone on the street and a homeless man who was sleeping.”

“This senseless violence was solely for personal entertainment.” According to the court, the boys did not show genuine remorse, and “the court did not get the impression that they understood the seriousness of their actions.” The court, therefore, considered the maximum possible sentence appropriate.