An 81-year-old woman from Volendam has been sentenced to two years in prison for attempted murder. Last year she set fire to the house of her neighbours, who were sleeping. The woman and the neighbors, who are also elderly, had been on bad terms for years.
In court, the woman said she had long been annoyed by the water fountain dripping into her neighbor’s yard. She also said she was annoyed by their music.
Early in the morning on April 10 last year, the Volendam set a staircase against the fence. Then she squirted soapy water into the fountain at the neighbors’. She then went to the neighbor’s front door, where she set fire to the letterbox. According to a witness, the woman said: “I’m completely done with it, they are busy all night, I’m setting it on fire.”
Woken up by the smoke detector
The neighbors were asleep and were awakened by the smoke detector. They had to flee through a window on the first floor, because they could not reach the stairs because of the fire.
The 81-year-old woman later stated that she must have acted in a fit of madness, but according to the court, the woman acted “calmly and decisively”.
Free for now
The sentence is lower than the requirement of the Public Prosecution Service, which had demanded three years in prison. In determining the sentence, the court took into account the woman’s advanced age and her clean criminal record.
The Volendam woman had been released pending her trial. The Public Prosecution Service had demanded that she be immediately detained after the verdict, but the judge did not agree. The woman is therefore free to await any appeal.
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