Groningen man who killed his son, 12, needs psychiatric care, not jail, says prosecutor

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) has recommended a forensic psychiatric treatment order with compulsory care (TBS with involuntary treatment) against Curtly E., 46, from Groningen, for stabbing his 12-year-old son Gianny-Davey to death on December 29 of last year.

Gianny-Davey, who lived in Amsterdam, was visiting his father in Groningen when the tragedy occurred. Police discovered him lying in a pool of blood in the living room of the Blekerslaan home in the Oosterpoort district, after his father called them. E. confessed to killing his son with a kitchen knife.

The prosecution is treating the case as manslaughter, finding no proof of premeditation, since the suspect did not have time to deliberate before the stabbing. E., who had stopped taking schizophrenia medication in September last year, believed, due to paranoid delusions, that his son intended to harm him.

E. Had previously attacked the mother of his son in 2014, after which he was deemed not criminally responsible and diagnosed with schizophrenia. He told the court that in the years that followed, he often stopped taking his medication, triggering psychotic episodes. Following his father’s death last year, he said he fell into depression and chose once more to stop his medication.

The suspect is not being held criminally responsible, as he was deeply affected by a severe psychotic episode. According to the prosecutor, the act of stabbing his 12-year-old son was so incomprehensible and shocking that it could only have arisen from a serious psychotic condition. His thoughts and behavior, authorities say, were entirely dominated by the psychosis.

In the Groningen court trial, the key issue is whether the suspect bears responsibility for his psychosis after discontinuing his medication. Experts, including his psychiatrist and psychologist, stated that E. could not predict he would act aggressively, as he was both psychotically disturbed and depressed.

The prosecutor explained that his choice to stop taking medication cannot be blamed on him, since it was made under the influence of his disorder, preventing him from foreseeing that it might result in such extreme violence.

The trial has stirred intense emotions among Gianny-Davey’s family members attending the court proceedings. In her victim statement, Gianny-Davey’s mother spoke of her son as irreplaceable and the center of her life. "I always considered him my life’s work," she said. "He should have been protected by his father, but instead he was murdered by the very person who was meant to keep him safe."

Around 50 grieving family members attended the trial, wearing white T-shirts with Gianny-Davey’s image and the phrase "forever in our hearts" on the back. Before the hearing began, they formed a circle and prayed together, some of the prayers in Papiamento.