Father gets 4.5 years in prison for attacking daughter's harasser
On Monday the court of appeal sentenced Mario H. to four years and six months in prison for attempted manslaughter. In January last year H. assaulted a 46-year-old former psychiatric prisoner with a snow shovel because the man had tried to lure his then 14-year-old daughter into a sexual relationship. According to the court, H. beat his victim hard enough with the snow shovel that he "knowingly accepted the chance that he would die as a result", NOS reports.
When this case was first tried H. was sentenced to 10 months in prison for aggravated assault. The Public Prosecutor appealed.
The attack happened in January last year. The 46-year-old internet scammer and former psychiatric prisoner chatted with H.'s then 14-year-old daughter online, pretending to be a 17-year-old boy. He tried to convince the girl to meet with him, and left her flowers and chocolate in her garden. H. believed that the man was previously convicted of sex offenses, but that turned out not to be the case.
After H. found out what was going on, he went looking for the man himself. The father informed the police of his search, but at the last minute refused to give the police information about his or the man's whereabouts. He felt that the police did too little to help and took the matter into his own hands, the court said. On January 19th last year, H. waited at the man's home for hours before following him to Eindhoven, where he hit him with a snow shovel multiple times. H. left him there badly injured.
The Public Prosecutor charged the father with attempted murder and demanded 6 years in prison against him. But according to the court, there is not enough evidence to prove that H. wanted to kill the man, only that he planned to assault him. Premeditation, and therefore murder, can not be proven, the court ruled.
H. plans to go into cassation against the ruling.
