The court in Assen sentenced 53-year-old Jan Willem H. from the city of the same name to twelve years in prison and TBS for the manslaughter of his partner. H. strangled his wife and hid her body in a roof box for two years. Earlier this year, the abandoned roof box was discovered in a canal in Drenthe.
The Public Prosecutor (OM) had asked for seventeen years in prison. The court has now imposed a shorter prison sentence, but also TBS treatment.
The judge finds what H. did “degrading”. Not only did he deprive his children of their mother, but he also left them wondering for two years about what happened to their missing mother.
Experts say that H. suffers from a narcissistic personality. He allegedly strangled her wife because she “stained blood under her fingernails”. The man had already been convicted of domestic violence three times before.
The judge believes that there are sufficient indications for a “moral disorder” in H. and a defective development of his mental abilities. TBS treatment is therefore necessary.
