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Violent crime
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Arnhem (The Netherlands), Sept. 3 (Reuters): A 15-year-old Dutch boy was sentenced to a year in juvenile detention today for stabbing to death a girl whose Facebook posts reportedly led to a contract for her killing.
The case, known in the Netherlands as the “Facebook murder”, caused widespread debate about the role of social media in violent crime.
The court said the boy did not know the victim and had murdered her “at the request or instructions of others”.
Dutch media reported that the 15-year-old victim, named in court documents as Winsie, had argued for weeks with two friends on the social networking site before they allegedly asked the defendant, who was 14 at the time, to kill her.
He was offered a 1,000 euro payment, the media reported.
“I am not happy with one year for my daughter’s life,” her father said outside the courthouse.“But that’s what the law book says. We were powerless and so were the authorities.”
The defendant, who was identified in court documents as Jinhua, apologised to the court for his actions. He had argued that he had been put under pressure by the Winsie’s friends and was unable to disobey them. Experts said he was suffering from a severe behavioural disorder with psychopathic tendencies.
The judge told the court that the consequences of the murder had caused “an enormous shock in the neighbourhood, the city and the country”.
Piano alarm
Dutch police arrested and then released without charge a homeless man who triggered an alarm after breaking into a music shop to play the piano. The man, who once studied music and is now homeless, smashed the music shop’s window in the northern Dutch town of Assen.
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