Jan van B. (91), suspected of murdering his wife (84), examined for dementia: ‘I can’t keep this up for long’

Van B. is suspected of stabbing his 84-year-old wife to death in their home on Van Speijkstraat in West on January 19 this year. He is also suspected of setting a fire in their home.

The suspect is currently in the Penitentiary Psychiatric Center (PPC) in Vught, a special department in the detention center. “I’m deaf,” says Van B., wearing a hat and a hearing aid, against the table behind which the press sits and shuffles behind his walker to the suspects’ bench.

During this pro forma, the judge explains what is happening slowly, loudly and clearly several times. “I don’t understand you,” Jan van B. says several times with a Brabant accent. When the judge asks whether he understands that he does not have to answer, he looks at his lawyer in despair.

“How are you?” the judge asks. From B: “Not very good, you know. I don’t sleep anymore.”

“Do you know why you are here?” From B: “Because something happened.”

Match

When the officer reads out what he is suspected of, Van B. raises his voice: “That is not true! My wife killed herself. The reason why I wanted to set the house on fire was because I had to look for my shoes with a match. There was a fire. And there was also a short circuit. And that fire started the fire. I didn’t touch my wife at all! Not at all.”

A little later he says: “My wife is a Jehovah’s Witness. She took the knife. She said, ‘O Jehovah, help me. And forgive me.’ And then I moved the closet. And then I didn’t hear her anymore.”

A whole book

The officer says there are ‘suspicions of dementia’. Van B. will therefore be examined by a psychiatrist and psychologist. “The neuropoli will also come by to look at your brain,” the judge explains to Van B., who has already been interrogated several times. “An entire book has already been written about me,” says Van B.

Victim Support says that the two children of the suspect and the victim ‘have no need to be involved in the legal process’.

A second pro forma hearing will follow on June 27. “Am I then acquitted?” asks Van B. “I can’t keep this up any longer. I have it in my heart, my lungs, my ears, eyes and legs. I weighed 108 kilos, now down to 78 kilos.”

He is helped up from the chair. “Thank you,” he calls to the judge as he shuffles out of the room.