Belgium: West Flanders jury convicts 29-year-old Dutch man to life imprisonment

Belgium: A jury in the West Flanders region has convicted a 29-year-old Dutch man to life imprisonment, & ten years in a psychiatric institution, for the 2017 murder of his 18-year-old ex-girlfriend, her grandparents, and a photographer for whom the then young woman sometimes modelled.

The suspect, Alexander D., was convicted for interrogating and torturing the photographer in the Ghent home for eight hours pre to stabbing him to death. The following day he also stabbed his ex-girlfriend, Mailys Descamps, in her residence in Moere, West Flanders, and then helped her in shooting her grandparents.

The jury judged that the murders were intended. D. shared a word with his victims, who in both cases begged him not to go for further violence.

D. went to Descamps’ residence on July 25, 2017, who had initially met the bodybuilder through the internet. A few days back, she had texted the Dutch man that she would not get back together with him. She had earlier told the then 24-year-old D. about her racy photoshoots with the photographer, Jeroen Verstraete, that may have involved sexual contact.

After the end of the relationship with D., he cyberstalked & tried to threaten Descamps for weeks. Once in the home, he first knifed Descamps, then her grandparents, Gery Cappon (68) and Marie-Jose Vanleene (64), who had come to the scene because they correctly feared that her stalker was there.

The man was apprehended the following evening in the centre of Ostend. In the meantime, the police found the connection with the murder of Verstraete on the night of July 24.

Whereas, an appeal in the case is almost impossible, as the trial was held before a jury.