Dutch woman convicted of killing her 4 newborn babies

[addy]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/03...57016.html

What surprised me the most was that she only got 12 years for four infanticides (though one was counted as manslaughter rather than murder) and that's supposed to be the maximum sentence. Seems lax?

[kath3]

12 years for the wasting of four innocent lives is despicable. The woman needs some serious help and should be sterilized.

[billy]

the only excuse i can see that allows for leniency in a case like this is a mental illness in which case the person
gets help. i don't see much about the actual case in the reporting but i have to agree that 12 years seems paltry on the face of it, i think she should have got life or death.

[srijantje]

if i recall correctly,in Holland 12 years is counted as life,you can't get more unless you are declared a psychopat or something,then they can lock you up forever or until yoy're declared cured

[heslopian]

I agree with Kath. She needs sectioning and should be prevented from having more children. This isn't about revenge but common sense, I feel.

[billy]

are the judiciary stupid in holland does that mean if you kill 4 people you still only get 12 years and not 48?
if you get 12 years, when do you get parole?

i think a person who is deemed sane enough to get a life sentence is deserving of any revenge i have to dish out. specially when it's 4 kids she killed. not foetus mind, but living children. in cases like this i feel life should mean life. i personally feel if she isn't insane she should be eliminated. if she's not a full shilling then she should never have got a life sentence, she should have got an indeterminate sentence in a psychiatric unit. ...no one should ever be sterilized against their will. if thats the case that it needs to happen then care in an enclosed unit would probably be best. (jmo)

[kath3]

I know nothing of Holland's judiciary system, and I haven't the time to go researching it, but 12 years for life (if this is true) is outrageous. Are atrocities against human life that meaningless there?

There's also a lot more to this story that is not being disclosed, things just don't add up. This mother killed four of her babies over several years, hid their bodies in a suitcase in her parents attic and nobody notices any foul smell?
How has she managed to conceal four pregnancies from her husband as well as her parents?
Is she insane or is she a victim herself that she has been driven to such horrific acts against her own babies?
This is a very bizzare story.

[billy]

to me who also isn't going to research the story, i think there has to be something wrong with her. whether or not she's insane is another story. it's stated she wanted to be the perfect daughter and thats why the kids were killed. if that is the reason then it, wouldn't bother me should she die a lingering death. if her parents boyfriends had anything to with it they too should die.

i would have thought the courts would have forced a psych evaluation of her instead of;

The court said it was a mystery why the woman, who refused to undergo a court-ordered psychological evaluation, became pregnant three times after killing her first child.

under the above circumstances she should have felt the full weight of the court which in this case is a ridiculous 12 years.

[srijantje]

that's the full weight of the court,12years

[addy]

Since she refused to undergo a psych evaluation it's not clear if she is mentally ill... but the sheer lengths she would go to to keep up a "perfect" facade paints a very disturbing picture of her. She was so paranoid about being discovered that she didn't go to an abortion clinic, though abortions are perfectly legal there (distasteful as it is, she could have terminated the pregnancies at an early stage)... and yet she allowed herself to get pregnant four fricking times.

As for four concealed pregnancies, though it does sound suspicious, I know there are some women who barely swell up when they are pregnant... there are even accounts of inexperienced girls not knowing they are pregnant until they are already in labor. As for the bodies, I loathe to talk about the properties of a decomposing newborn child (forgive me), but I assume when it is locked tightly in a suitcase in the attic such a tiny thing would barely make a smell (though why she would keep them that way is another grizzly detail to this despicable mess).

In my (two minute) research on dutch law, it appears there is a certain subterfuge in their system. Though the average life sentence is 12-15 years, at the end of this period a committee will decide whether she is fit to be released back into society or whether she should be indefinitely detained in a mental institution (psychiatric treatment would be their only way of justifying a longer sentence). I think they might be angling to give her much longer than 12 years later on. Still, a 12-year sentence on a capital crime like murder sounds shocking to me.

[srijantje]

that's exactly what they'll do,if they would have decided she's insane now,she would be locked away in a kushi institution right away,with the the chance to be declared cured in a few years,now she first has to do her 12 years in a prison and then probably send to an institution

[addy]

I do believe they're not planning to let her off easy, but it's just such a roundabout way to do it... if 12 years is insufficient (we assume even the dutch judiciary probably thinks it is) then shouldn't they be thinking about changing their laws to reflect that?

[billy]

i think if i get what sj is saying, the judiciary want her to do at least twelve years in a real prison before possibly spending the rest of her life in an asylum.

[srijantje]

yes,to punish her more.
she'll probably do 8 in a prison and then send to an institution until she's deemed cured

[billy]

i'll wager those who deem her cured wouldn't let her babysit their new born for them while they go out for the night

[addy]

well it's not her baby so she wouldn't hurt them

[srijantje]

when you're nuts like that,you never will be cured