On Thursday, the court in The Hague convicted a suspected man on appeal for the manslaughter of a Polish cannabis cutter in Naaldwijk in 2003. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
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Manslaughter
On Wednesday, the court in The Hague convicted a suspect on appeal for the manslaughter of a weed cutter whom he unexpectedly encountered when he tried to steal weed in a home. The Hague court considers it proven that the man killed the woman in a home in Naaldwijk on May 6, 2003 by asphyxiation and very brutal violence.
Body
On May 6, 2003, the dead body of a 31-year-old Polish woman was found in a home in Naaldwijk. She was in the house that morning to cut weed. The investigation into her death was closed on August 24, 2004, as it had not led to the arrest and prosecution of a suspect.
In 2017 there was a match with the suspect’s name in the DNA database in that year. The suspect’s DNA was found under the victim’s nails. He was arrested on May 28, 2019.
Denied
The court sentenced the suspect to 12 years in prison. The man has always denied having anything to do with the victim’s death and says he has never been to the house in question. He therefore appealed. The Public Prosecution Service also did so, because it considered the imposed sentence too low
Opportunity
On appeal, further investigation was conducted into the cause of the victim’s death, the securing of DNA traces at the time and the general chance that someone else’s DNA could end up under fingernails.
The results confirm what was previously established. The court finds that what was found is a trace of the perpetrator. It matches the scratches found on the victim’s neck, which indicate defense injuries. The suspect has not given an explanation as to how he got there. There are also witness statements showing that the suspect knew about the cannabis farm in the house and that he had been there before.
To steal
The suspect is guilty of qualified manslaughter, the court states: ‘The suspect went to a house to steal cannabis. In the house he killed the victim, whom he unexpectedly found there, in a very violent manner. Both the blows to the back of her head with a hard and heavy object and the suffocation each individually and certainly in combination led to death.’
According to court counselors, the theft of the cannabis and the fear that it would be discovered that he was the thief led him to commit the gruesome murder.
From the judgment: ‘He caused irreparable suffering to the victim’s relatives. It was also unclear to the relatives for a long time who killed the victim. Such a violent death is deeply shocking for the surviving relatives as well as for the local residents at the time and society in general. Almost 21 years after the death of the victim, the legal order has once again been seriously shocked by this.’
Punishment
The court gives greater weight to the gross violence used by the suspect than the court does. She thinks a prison sentence of 15 years is appropriate. But the sentencing took into account the long duration of the appeal process. That is why the man receives a prison sentence of 14 years.
