Court convicts man for failing to help drowning friend, shooting video instead

A judge in the District Court in Den Bosch convicted Alex S., a man with an intellectual disability, for failing to help his friend who drowned. S. was accused of shooting video when the Den Bosch man went into the water, and continuing to shoot video without interruption for about ten minutes when his friend failed to take a breath.

The 55-year-old was sentenced to an eight-week prison sentence on Monday for not intervening sooner and providing assistance. Five of those weeks may be served on probation.

The two met in the morning of July 2022 in Den Bosch, and later arranged to meet at Het IJzeren Kind, a small lake in Rosmalen. The victim, who S. described as a good swimmer, said at the time that he needed to make videos. S. did this for him, even as his friend remained lying still in the water with his head down.

He filmed that for at least ten minutes. The moment when he realized something is wrong can be heard in the video recording. "He's dead, he drowned," said S.

"Nothing happened for ten minutes," the judge said. It was "difficult to understand" the how the incident played out. "You didn't want your friend dead, but he did die."

S. told the judge that he thought the man was joking. "I really did not realize that he was dying. I thought, 'He is joking.'" The two men had been drinking heavily, and S. had at least six pints of beer. The recording did not show the victim asking for help, and he did not wave his arms or struggle, S. said in his defense. S. also stated that he did not realize that minutes had already passed before he intervened.

Eventually, S. pulled his friend out of the water, tried to resuscitate him and called 112 for emergency services. When it became clear that something was wrong, he completely panicked. Bystanders observed that S. was very upset. "I cried for two days," S. said.

The prosecutor had demanded an unconditional prison sentence of three months behind bars. However, the judge found that too severe a sentence, partly because it took a long time for the case to be brought to trial. She also took into account that S. has an intellectual disability.

She also noted that he has his life back on track these days. He has a home and a job and his extensive criminal record mainly concerns incidents that happened many years ago.

S.'s lawyer announced immediately afterwards that he planned to appeal the sentence. He believes that S. should be acquitted.