Belgium's 'Joker' on trial
BELGIUM: An assize court in Ghent on Friday hears a 53-page
charge-sheet against a young Belgian who disguised himself as Batman foe
"The Joker" before going on a killing spree at a nursery four years ago
that chilled the nation.
Kim De Gelder, now aged 24, will be formally charged with killing two
infants and their 54-year-old minder in an attack on "Fable Land" day
care centre in the town of Dendermonde in 2009.
He will also be accused of murdering an elderly woman in a separate
attack a week earlier, and be charged for attempted murder on 22 people,
including 16 babies and toddlers at the creche.
The jury of eight men and four women will be told by the prosecution
that after initial disagreements, psychiatric experts had deemed the
accused could stand trial as he was "able to distinguish between good
and evil" when the killings took place. The charge-sheet shows how the
then unemployed 20-year-old, son of a nurse and of an inspector at the
state water board, planned the shocking rampage.
At dawn on January 23 he dyed his hair red and painted his face white
with black around his eyes like "The Joker" in the Batman movie "Dark
Knight". Last year, US youth James Holmes was accused of killing 12
people and wounding 58 in a cinema screening the sequel of the film.
Once disguised, De Gelder filled a bag with knives and an axe and cycled
to the nursery in mid-morning where he said to 54-year-old minder Marita
Blindeman: "I have a question, can you help?" "Without warning," says
the charge-sheet, "the young man began to knife her." She did not
survive.
In the nursery he then went for six-month Corneel and nine-month
Leon. And then, in a bloody rampage that last a quarter-hour, attacked
the remaining children and adults before making off on his bike.
Police said he had planned to attack two more nurseries, a police
academy, and even the king.
AFP |