Investigators to examine mental care given to man suspected of killing 9-year-old boy

A collaboration of four government inspectorates will investigate to what extent Donny M. was given the “appropriate guidance, support, and care.” M. Is suspected of kidnapping and killing 9-year-old Gino van der Straeten in Limburg last June. Sources close to the investigation told L1 in August that the 22-year-old confessed to playing a role in the abduction and death during an interrogation.

Van der Straeten disappeared from a park in Kerkrade on 1 June while playing football. His body was found behind a burned-out house in Geleen a few days later. M. was arrested in his home shortly before the discovery. The home is located a short walk from where the victim’s body was found. M. faces charges of murder, abduction, and possession of child pornography.

M. was previously convicted in 2017 for assaulting and threatening two children, at least one of whom he abused, said Phil Boonen, the lawyer for one of the victims, over the summer. According to Boonen, the court then imposed a sentence on M. That was equivalent to his pre-trial detention: a little less than five months in juvenile detention. He also had to be treated in a clinic for young people in Eindhoven.

The way in which the parties involved in M.’s treatment worked together will also be examined, said the Health and Youth Care Inspectorate (IGJ) on Thursday. It was previously announced that the suspect has a criminal sexual history. The IGJ said that Toezicht Sociaal Domein will run the investigation, which is a collaboration of the Justice and Security Inspectorate, the Education Inspectorate, the Dutch Labor Inspectorate, and the IGJ.

The local supervisor of the municipality of Sittard-Geleen will also cooperate in the investigation. "They are doing this together because various organizations and professionals from the social aspect of criminal care were involved with the suspect before June of this year," the IGJ said.

The study must map out what went wrong with the guidance, care and support, "and thereby formulate learning and improvement points for the future.”

The report is expected to be published next spring.