Child porn added to charges against 1998 murder suspect
The Public Prosecutor added a charge of possession of child pornography against Jos B., the man already suspected of sexually abusing and killing 11-year-old Nicky Verstappen in Brunssummerheide in 1998. The 55-year-old man was reprimanded into another 90 days of custody by the court on Thursday, NU.nl reports.
According to the court in Maastricht, B. will stay in custody because the suspicions against him are serious and there is a good chance that he will flee the country if he is released. The court is also worried about repetition if B. is let out in public.
B.'s lawyer Gerald Roethof asked that his client be released. According to the lawyer, there is no evidence against his client.
Earlier on Thursday Roethof said that the DNA trace that led to B. being identified in the Nicky Verstappen case did not come from blood or semen, and that his client did not confess to killing the 11-year-old boy. Roethof did not want to say what he discussed with his client. "But if he had made a confession, I would not be here", the lawyer said. That does not necessarily mean B. is denying involvement. "It may also be that he is remaining silent."
Roethof said that he made it clear that the Public Prosecutor has no case against B. "Because it has not been established how Nicky died", he said. "Then it can also be natural causes." The lawyer also indicated that he wants to see the complete file. "In this case there are 180 files on case. I only got one. I have a very big problem with that."
The Public Prosecutor refused to respond to the lawyer's statements. "The statements are for the account of the lawyer and we will discuss this further in court", a spokesperson said to NU.nl.
Nicky Verstappen disappeared while on summer camp in Brunssummerheide during the night between August 9th and 10th, 1998. His body was found a day later.
In June of this year, B. was identified as a suspect. He left the Netherlands in October last year - the same month as a large DNA kinship investigation was launched in this case. In April his family reported him missing . They sent various of B.'s belongings to the police, including some of his clothes. DNA material on B.'s clothes was compared to traces found on Nicky's body. They matched.
B. was stopped by Marechaussee officers shortly after Nicky's death, in the area where his body was found. He told the officers that he was out for a nighttime bike ride. They took not of his name, and it remained in the file. The police were therefore able to link the missing person report to the Nicky Verstappen case.
The man was arrested near Barcelona on August 26th and extradited to the Netherlands. He had items in his possession that indicated that he was planning to spend a long time hiding in the wild.
