Court of Appeal in Rotterdam appoints experts in fatal care farm mass shooting

Are clinics that provide court-mandated psychiatric treatment to convicted criminals (TBS) promising after a prison sentence of thirty years? That question is central to the appeal in the case about the fatal shooting at a care farm in Alblasserdam. The Court of Appeal in Rotterdam appointed a psychiatrist and psychologist from the Pieter Baan Center (PBC) on Friday to answer that question. The substantive hearing of the appeal is scheduled for November 15. The court allocates four days for this.

Last year, 40-year-old John S. from Oud-Alblas was sentenced to life in prison by the court for shooting dead a 34-year-old employee and a 16-year-old girl in a care farm in Alblasserdam on May 6, 2022. Two others, a boy aged 12 and a 20-year-old woman, were seriously injured. Two days before, he had shot dead a 60-year-old shoemaker in his shop on Sint Jacobsstraat in Vlissingen.

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) and the suspect appealed against the imposed sentence. The appeal will not be about the conviction of the three murders and two attempts to it but only about the life sentence imposed. The OM had demanded a prison sentence of thirty years and TBS with compulsory treatment and did not agree with the court's reasoning. He said it was pointless to start TBS after such a long prison sentence. The defense believes that the court has replaced the behavioral experts of the PBC by deviating from their findings about the degree of responsibility of S.

The Public Prosecution Service believes that more expert research is needed to determine, in S.'s case specifically, to what extent TBS is still effective after a decades-long prison sentence. Its purpose is to provide maximum protection to society, the prosecutors argue on appeal.

The Court of Appeal in Rotterdam also wants more information from experts about treatment options while serving a life sentence. "If he does not have access to care, it amounts to locking up the suspect and throwing away the key," said the Advocate General, who considers it contrary to European human rights. "Life sentence prisoners must also have perspective," said S.'s new lawyer.

The Public Prosecution Service will appeal the sentence on November 26. The court wants to make a ruling in December.