Man sentenced to 20 months in jail for a fatal push off the stairs

A 45-year-old man was convicted on Monday of pushing his 32-year-old girlfriend down the stairs in July 2021. The woman died from injuries suffered in the fall. The suspect, Christopher da S. L. was sentenced to 20 months in jail for the incident at their home on the Lepelaarssingel in the Rotterdam neighborhood of Charlois.

"Instead of protecting her, he put her in danger," said the District Court in Rotterdam.

The court ruled prosecutors proved that Christopher da S. L. pushed her, but it is unknown in which direction he pushed her and with what level of force. The court mainly did not subscribe to the version of events presented by the prosecutor, who had called for an eight-year prison sentence for manslaughter earlier this month. Instead, the man was convicted of assault resulting in death.

During the investigation, it was clear that there was friction between the two. He was annoyed as he felt she should have cleaned the house, but said she had gone shopping instead.

Their situation got out of hand in the evening after the victim's daughter went to a friend's house. According to the man, his girlfriend was drunk, and he forbade her to go up the stairs, an instruction she ignored. He said that he walked up the stairs, too, to direct her off the stairs. He denied pushing her during the investigation.

The court pointed out that Da S. L. told the emergency services operator and the officers who first arrived on the scene that he had pushed his girlfriend. The court blamed him for not being transparent about the case. "Due to that, there are questions left unanswered."

The man has only spent a few months in pretrial detention, which will count against his sentence from the Rotterdam court. He will still be required to serve a considerable amount of jail time.