A 58-year-old man from Maastricht has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for killing his wife. In September 2020, the man hit his wife twice on the head with a hammer while she was sleeping. He also stabbed her twice in the neck.
During the hearing, the suspect stated that he had acted on a whim, writes 1Limburg† According to him, his wife had been having an affair with another man for months and even took that man to the matrimonial home. Things went wrong on September 5. “I was furious and went into a kind of haze. Then I grabbed the hammer and hit her on the head with two blows in a row.”
After beating his wife to death, the Maastricht resident tried to take his own life. That failed and he was arrested. During an investigation in the house, the police found suicide letters, which the suspect wrote with the idea that he would also die.
manslaughter
The Public Prosecution Service wanted the man to be convicted of murder and demanded 18 years in prison† The judge did not agree and sentenced the man to manslaughter.
According to the judge, there was no premeditation because there was a short time between the decision to take the woman’s life and the actual execution. The man grabbed a hammer and then walked to the victim in 21 seconds.
However, the court finds that the suspect acted cold-blooded. “The suspect was driven by revenge because the victim was in a relationship with another person.” Furthermore, the court did not get the impression that the suspect showed genuine remorse.
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