On February 1, 2018, the then 61-year-old Ivo Poppe was convicted of the murders of his mother, his father-in-law, two great-uncles and a patient. The Bruges court of assizes imposed a prison sentence of 27 years on him at the time, but this week Poppe was released again “for medical reasons”. He was picked up by his former wife on Tuesday evening. “I am relieved and happy for Ivo,” his lawyer Filip De Reuse responds Newspaper of West Flanders.
“His condition is very serious,” De Reuse explains to our editors. “It concerns a conditional release for medical reasons, they don’t just do that. My client already had cancer when he was convicted and the disease has since spread further. He can still go to family, who have always supported him, but he will probably mainly stay in the hospital for examinations.”
Poppe killed, among others, his father-in-law Gerard Vercaemer (80). The ex-sister-in-law reacts briefly and disappointed to the news. “We’re not feeling good about it. We still can’t reach it. He killed our father.”
Euthanasia
At the end of 2013, the gruesome facts came to light: the former deacon of Wevelgem had himself told a psychiatrist how he had performed euthanasia on dozens of people while he was working at the Sint-Joris Hospital in Menen. He did this, among other things, by injecting a large amount of air into the veins. The court in Kortrijk started an investigation, after which Ivo Poppe ended up in jail in May 2014 on suspicion of a whole series of murders.
His health had been deteriorating for a long time: he battled prostate cancer, he also suffered from kidney stones and he was admitted to the infirmary of the Bruges prison several times over the past ten years. The sentencing court now ruled that there is no longer a guarantee that he can serve his sentence in “humane conditions”. Two weeks ago his lawyer applied for his release. Because Poppe had already served almost ten years, or more than a third of his sentence, he was eligible for this.
Following the decision to have him appear for assizes, a three-part series about ‘Deacon of Death’ Ivo Poppe was published in the Nieuwsblad.
READ ALSO. How could the “good” deacon Ivo Poppe commit one murder after another for 30 years? We will look for the answer using his secret notebooks
READ ALSO. In the police interrogation room, the deacon of death worried about his family. “My wife doesn’t know yet that I killed her father”
READ ALSO. “I am a savior, not a serial killer”: the ‘Deacon of Death’ who feels too good for prison
The victims
The first victim was Maurice Vanhaverbeke (79), the great-uncle of the accused. Poppe admitted that he used a pillow to kill his great-uncle in September 1978. His other great uncle Leo Vanhaverbeke (81) was also killed by the Wevelgem native.
On May 17, 1986, Ivo Poppe injected air into the victim’s veins through a catheter. In the same way he killed his father-in-law Gerard Vercaemer (80) in April 2004. His mother Ivonna Vanhaverbeke (90) was the last victim on January 27, 2011.
During the investigation, Ivo Poppe confessed to having a hand in the death of Marguerite Blondeel (84) in March 1996. He also made confessions about the murder of Irma Parmentier (74) in December 1993, but in both cases he recanted. Poppe admitted that he killed at least ten more patients, although it was never clear who exactly it was. The former deacon was ultimately acquitted for the murder of Marguerite Blondeel.
Tags: Deacon Death Ivo Poppe released years conviction murders condition Wevelgem
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