Court convicts Eindhoven man, 81, who said he stabbed wife to death while sleepwalking
The Oost-Brabant court convicted an 81-year-old man from Eindhoven of stabbing his elderly wife to death in March 2024 and sentenced him to 12 years in prison. The man claimed that he killed his wife while he was sleepwalking, but the court did not believe this story, describing his actions as “horrific.”
After over 55 years of marriage, the man killed his wife by stabbing her eight times with a kitchen knife in her chest. Multiple cuts on her face and hands indicate that she fought for her life while her husband stabbed her, the court said.
The man’s lawyer claimed that the suspect was sleepwalking during the murder and can therefore not be held liable for the crime. But according to the court, a neurologist, a psychiatrist, and a neuropsychologist have testified that sleepwalkers have no memory of what they did while sleepwalking and cannot explain their actions afterward. The man’s statements contradict this, the court said.
When he called the emergency number 112, the man repeatedly said that he had killed his wife and stabbed her several times. “These details can only come from his own memory,” the court said. He also said during that call that his wife was developing dementia and that he could no longer cope. “The court considers this explanation to constitute a motive or intention to kill the woman.”
According to the court, the man is feigning memory loss and, in doing so, he is refusing to take responsibility for his actions. “This is unbearable for the bereaved,” the court said.
The man was overwhelmed by the informal care he was providing for his wife and distressed by her cognitive decline, the court said. “Apparently, at some point, this became too much for him.”
And while that is a terrible thing, it does not outweigh the fact that the man brutally killed his wife of over 55 years while she desperately fought for her life. “The fear she must have felt for her own husband in the final moments of her life is incomprehensible,” the court said.
“The court finds a lengthy prison sentence appropriate for the horrific crime the defendant committed.” The sentence is two years longer than the Public Prosecution Service (OM) had recommended.
