The kidnapping of baby Hannah, on 26 February 2018, was big news. After a visit to the supermarket in Eersel, the Maxi-Cosi in which the little Hannah was sitting was groaned from her foster mother’s hands by her biological parents. A few days later the three were found in a holiday park in Germany. This Wednesday it was told in the court in Den Bosch what that kidnapping preceded.
It is a bit strange. Everyone knows the kidnapping of baby Hannah more than seven years ago, but the abuse that preceded it is only now coming to court. Baby Hannah from Handel was already under the bruises after barely seven weeks and had several fractures. When that abuse was discovered, the now 33-year-old parents Kim de L. and Rowan S. were immediately arrested and put out of parental authority.
Father does not want to be found
Rowan did not come to court on Wednesday. His last known address is in Mol, Belgium, but he has not been living there since 2009 and the judiciary does not know where he is. And Rowan apparently does not want to be found, because his lawyer was not allowed to say anything about his place of residence. Kim had come and was clearly nervous to raise all the misery from 2017 again.
The fact that both parents, out of desperation in February 2018, pulled their baby out of the hands of the foster mother, will probably have been done out of love. But it both earned them a year in prison. And what was preceded by that kidnapping was also not nice, it could be heard on Wednesday.
Baby Hannah was born on August 16, 2017. She lived with her parents in Handel, but it went wrong at the end of September and the beginning of October. Mother Kim saw bruises on the baby and went to the doctor, who referred them to the hospital.
Six broken ribs
Nothing crazy was found there in the first instance, but the following night the police and Veilig Thuis were at the door and baby Hannah was taken. In addition to bruising, Hannah also appeared to have six broken ribs and a crack in the attachment of the right foot. And, it was found, that had no medical cause, but had to have been done by someone.
Kim denied any involvement in the mistreatment of her daughter and thus pushed the blame to her then partner Rowan. According to her, she never saw Rowan after the kidnapping and the court case again and this Wednesday it did not come to a reunification.
The public prosecutor ruled that Rowan S. is responsible for the abuse. She demanded six months in prison for ‘Shaking Baby Hannah’ forcefully ‘.
At home was not safe
As far as the judiciary, mother Kim does not have to be punished for the abuse of her daughter, but the officer thought that Kim should have intervened earlier. “Bruising with a seven -week -old baby are not normal,” she noted. She also blamed Kim for taking Hannah home from the hospital. “Her bed at home was just an unsafe place,” the officer condemned Kim’s action.
And that is why at night safely at home and the police were on the sidewalk. Also because there were signs that the parents might be running away. “That was apparent in February when Kim and Rowan Baby Hannah kidnapped to Germany,” said the officer, who had been involved in the case from the beginning of October 2017.
In addition to the mistreatment of baby Hannah, the officer also demanded the six -month jail staff for Rowan because he threatened his brother -in -law when Hannah had to go to a new foster family. Both ex-partners were also involved in a fraud case with Rabobank in the same period. And they are also punishable for that, according to the officer.
See more often
Mother Kim will undoubtedly be relieved that she does not have to go back into jail in terms of justice. But her real concern is a very different one, it turned out. For years she has not closed an eye and she stuffs her days to have distraction and not to think about Hannah continuously.
Once every three weeks she can pick up Hannah for an hour and a half from her foster mother. And despite the fact that that is nice, she would really like to see her daughter more. “I missed a lot of Hannah’s life and that breaks me every day,” she said with a sob. A relationship also proves difficult for her. “Every time the conversation comes out on this case and that cannot be explained. I can’t trust people either.”
Hannah has been living with the same foster family for about seven years now. She is doing well, it became clear during the session. “I saw a picture of her, now that she has been almost 8 years old and I saw a world of difference with the photos from 2017,” the officer said. “She still has a backlog and is shocked, for example, hard voices, but she is doing well.
The decision in this case is on 25 June.