BREDA - The court in Breda on Monday sentenced 27-year-old Freddy T. from Rijen to 18 years in prison for the murder of a 51-year-old Belgian. Her body was found August 2006 in a cornfield in the North Brabant town of Chaam.
His ex-girlfriend, 33-year-old José van E. of Rijen, was acquitted. She spent about a year in pre-trial detention on suspicion of involvement in the murder. The Public Prosecutor's Office (OM) had demanded 24 years in prison against T. and acquittal for his ex-girlfriend. T. knew the victim from a café in Turnhout, Belgium, where he worked behind the bar. He denies killing the woman. However, in an earlier statement, he said he tried to strangle her after an argument and she became unconscious. She was in the car with him at the time because she wanted a ride to the Netherlands. According to his ex-girlfriend, after the attempted strangulation, he dragged the unconscious woman into the cornfield and cut her throat there.