The Public Prosecution Service (OM) on Thursday demanded fifteen years in prison and TBS with forced nursing against Jos B. for kidnapping, abusing and killing Nicky Verstappen in 1998. The child disappeared without a trace during a summer camp and will “remain eleven years old forever” .
In an hour-long requisitoir, the Public Prosecution Service explained why, according to them, no one other than 57-year-old B. can be responsible for the death of the child.
For example, the man’s DNA was “found all over Nicky’s clothes”. It concerns dander and probably saliva residues found on the waistband and the middle of the front of Nicky’s underwear, which, according to the OM, indicates that B. stripped and abused the child.
The child has been found to have injuries that could indicate penetration, but an innocent cause cannot be ruled out, according to an expert questioned in court. The Public Prosecution says that not all types of abuse leave injuries.
The cause of death of the child cannot be determined with certainty, but a natural cause of death is almost certainly ruled out according to the prosecutors. They think the child has been suffocated or choked and point out that the examiner saw pressure marks on the eleven-year-old’s neck.
“Nicky will remain eleven years old forever,” the prosecutor summarized. “His family burned thousands of candles with his photo. A photo where you should actually see an adult man.”
The Public Prosecution Service wants to be imposed
The OM comes to kidnapping, abuse and qualified manslaughter. The latter means that the prosecutors think that Nicky was killed by B. to conceal the abuse.
In 1998, the maximum prison sentence for qualified manslaughter was life or a temporary maximum prison sentence of 20 years. This was changed in 2006 to a temporary maximum sentence of thirty years because the gap between twenty years and life was considered too large.
The Public Prosecution does not want us as a society to “take the risk” of leaving B. untreated after his imprisonment. “Despite the fact that Jos B. had the internal drive to bring himself under control, he was unable to do this,” said the public prosecutor. So, despite the fact that the Pieter Baan Center (PBC) has not come up with an advice due to the lack of cooperation from B., that TBS is imposed with compulsory nursing.
B. must be prosecuted according to the ‘old’ standard, in other words: life imprisonment or a maximum sentence of twenty years can be imposed. The Public Prosecution Service will end up with a prison sentence of fifteen years and a hospital order, but if the court does not want to impose a hospital order, eighteen years must be imposed according to the Public Prosecution Service.
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The tent where Nicky slept during summer camp. (Photo: police).
B. says he found Nicky’s body while cycling
Jos B. came into contact with the police in the eighties after he had abused three boys about the same age as Nicky. He reached into their pants. The OM sees a similar course of action in the Verstappen case, given the place where B.’s DNA was found on the underwear.
The man says he found Nicky’s body while he was cycling around. “There was nothing I could do for him anymore,” the man said in a video statement. He would have straightened the child’s pajama pants. “A rehearsed play and an unbelievable alternative scenario”, says the OM.
On Monday Gerald Roethof will start the plea. Since the arrest of his client, B.’s lawyer has pointed out that there are many question marks about the abuse and the cause of death.
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