9-year-old Raul died on Thursday after severe abuse and was dumped in a sports bag in the water of the Houtdok in the Belgian city of Ghent. The public prosecutor’s office confirmed this on Friday following the death of the Romanian boy. The boy’s mother has been arrested, her boyfriend is still on the run.
Jeroen Desmecht, Lien Verlinden
Apr 14 2023
Latest update:
14-04-23, 21:01
A text message and statements from his sister (11) eventually led the police to the boy’s mother (30) and her former boyfriend. His mother has been arrested on suspicion of assault and hiding Raul’s body. The man is still on the run.
The body was spotted by a casual passer-by on Thursday morning. He immediately alerted the emergency services who went to the scene. They determined that the boy had already died.
Abused
The body turned out to belong to 9-year-old Raul. He recently moved to the Afrikalaan in Ghent with his family. The boy had been badly abused for some time. He would be punched, beaten with a belt, and regularly poured ice-cold and hot water on him.
At the beginning of this year, Raul suddenly disappeared. “On January 8, we saw him, a day later he was gone,” says a neighbor of the family. Presumably the victim died of yet another torture. The mother and stepfather would then have hidden the body in a sports bag with some stones and dumped it a little further in the Houtdok.
In the water for months
The couple was able to keep the gruesome facts a secret for months. Until the mother sent a text message to an uncle in Germany. The man called the police and came to Belgium to file a report. Police questioned Raul’s mother and 11-year-old sister this week. Her statements eventually led the police to where the body was eventually found. It soon became clear that the boy had been in the water for months.
The public prosecutor’s office appointed a law doctor. The mother was arrested and detained by the investigating judge on suspicion of assault and concealment of the body. The woman does not deny the facts, but minimizes her own share. The police are busy tracking down Raul’s former stepfather.
Mathias De Clercq (Open VLD), mayor of Ghent is aware of the facts, but cannot respond for the time being in the interest of the investigation.
LOOK. The first images of the place where the body was found.
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Tags: Raul beaten death dumped Ghent marina mother arrested stepfather run
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