For the stabbing to death of three people in early May 2019, Thijs H. (28) of Brunssum must receive 24 years in prison plus tbs with compulsory treatment.
That is what the Public Prosecutor's Office demanded Tuesday in the Maastricht District Court.
Contrary to the behavioral experts at the Pieter Baan Center, the prosecution considers him jointly guilty of having induced the psychosis, in which he committed the murders, by using drugs and non-prescribed medication. He may also well have exaggerated this psychosis. "But that there must have been a disorder is certain: it is unimaginable that you slaughter three people in such a way," said prosecutor Joan Holthuis. "He is in our view diminished culpability."
Prosecutors believe that H. acted in a calculated manner in the stabbing to death of Etsuko (56) in the Schevenings Bosjes on May 4, 2019 and the stabbing to death of Diny (63) and Frans (68) on Brunssummerheide on May 7. Among other things, he turned off his phone shortly before the murders to avoid being traced. H. says he had been "ordered" through TV reports and license plates that he had to kill people to spare his own family. H. thought the world was in the hands of psychopaths, who spoke code language. Experts say a person with psychosis can still think logically and plan "within the disturbed reality he has."
According to the prosecution, there is hardly any objective support for H.'s story that he was psychotic from May 2018. "Defendant and his family cannot be believed. The PBC report is not completely reliable and incomplete." Treaters of H. from Mondriaan and others have seen no signs of psychosis, but have not been contacted by the PBC investigators. Unjustified, Mondriaan writes in a letter to the PBC: "It is absolutely customary to ask additional questions. That did not happen and that is reprehensible. There is no question of diligence on the part of the PBC."
The prosecution does not think that H. was not in psychosis at all: "We don't know. But there are really enough facts and circumstances to question the story of defendant and his parents. The PBC's investigation is flawed and incomplete. Thijs H. himself said that he still had limits despite his madness."
Not only the PBC, but also H.'s parents and lawyer were given hefty sweeps from the prosecution. In justice's sketch, they directed one and all quite a bit in very close consultation. "Are the parents' statements reliable? His sister never wanted to talk to us. did talk to the PBC. After H. had been in the PBC, the parents also invoked their right to privilege: the reliability of their story cannot be tested. Are they speaking the truth or the agreed-upon truth?"
In the wiretapped phone conversations H. had with his parents from prison, it was never about the victims and relatives, recalled prosecutor Diana van Gosen. "It was only about Thijs H."
https://www.limburger.nl/cnt/dmf20200630_00166340/eis-24-jaar-cel-plus-tbs-tegen-thijs-h
