OM demands 5 years in prison against man who stabbed son at Boomkroonpad

The suspect and his ex, the mother of the child, will separate in December 2021. The man would lie about his cannabis use. Things have not been going well between the man and the woman for a long time. She is, however, arranged with their child in the father’s house, because she wanted the bond between father and son to develop.

In the morning of February 27, 2022, things go wrong between Alex B. and his ex, the boy’s mother. They get into an argument in which he pulls her from a chair, according to the woman. She goes to the neighbors to cool off. There she calls her parents and asks for help. She sees how her ex comes out with the boy and puts things in the car. She walks towards it and he indicates that he ‘wants to go for a walk with their son’. She tries to stop him, but he drives off and runs over her foot. “I thought she was going to leave me, so I took our son with me.”

Two notes are found on the door of the suspect’s home. They are found by the mother of the child and her father. One says ‘we are also a block away’. The other is addressed to the mother of the child. According to the judge, it is an explanation of the blessings of co-parenting. That’s what the man wanted.

The woman calls the police who are looking for the man. They want to arrest him for domestic violence because of the incident with the chair. The officers find his car at the parking lot of the Boomkroonpad in Drouwen. The police called the woman back with the request to come there to pick up her son. She gets in the car with her father and drives to Drouwen.

The two officers declare that the man is caring and kind to the child. They see the boy shivering because he is cold and tell B. that he can sit in the car with the child to keep warm, the door must remain open. Then in one movement he takes the knife from his bag and keeps it out of sight of the officers. “I wanted to prevent them from taking it.” He holds the knife with both hands and stabs the child in his chest. “I didn’t think much at the time, it all went very fast.” He lays the toddler on his stomach in the driver’s seat. “I assumed he was already dead. Then I started stabbing myself.”

The man admits that he deliberately stabbed the baby near the heart. “Fortunately, my anatomical knowledge was lacking,” he tells the judge. He thought that the heart was in a different place. “As I stabbed myself I thought why am I not dying?” The officers yell for him to put the knife away and shoot him with a taser. He closes the car door and stabs himself again.

Meanwhile, the child’s mother arrives at the Boomkroonpad. She sees her ex sitting in the passenger seat and two police officers standing next to the car. She suddenly sees a struggle between B. and the officers, he is dragged out of the car and then she hears her son crying. She runs to the car, takes it out and pulls the boy against her. She hears someone shout about a knife and then sees that the child is bloodied on his chest. The bleeding is stopped by bystanders. A nurse who is walking in the woods helps. The child is rushed to the hospital in Groningen. The boy has an arterial hemorrhage and a severed rib. According to the doctor, the injuries are “potentially fatal.” Emergency surgery saves the toddler’s life.

Alex B. also appears to be injured. He stabbed himself four times and has multiple stab wounds. He is also taken to hospital and operated on. The woman later stated to the police that B. had previously threatened to take his own life. The man states that he has indeed had suicidal tendencies before and has previously planned that he would use a knife for this. However, he did not intend to commit suicide that February 27, he says. He had the knife with him as an emergency scenario. “In case it really got out of hand, it was my emergency exit. It was not my intention to stab my son, then I would have done it in the woods and not later in front of the police officers.”

“It’s a twisted act of love,” the man told the court. “I had to save him from a shitty life.” All morning he thought about an incident a year earlier. After an argument with the mother of his first child, the child is said to have said that he did not want his brother to have a shitty life like he with two fighting parents.

The judge notices that the suspect looks different than during the previous hearing. He dyed his hair and grew a beard. He doesn’t want to be recognized, he says. His oldest son goes to primary school and he doesn’t want kids from school to recognize him.

The man is very emotional during the hearing and bursts into tears several times. “I believe that I can pay for the rest of my life for the suffering I have caused my son, his mother and my other son and family,” he stated at the hearing. The man says he has great regrets and describes it as a ‘horrible act’. He has his doubts about compensation for his son and his mother. “I expect that you will impose a long prison sentence on me and also tbs.” But then, according to him, it is not possible to earn money, with which he could pay the two. The mother and her son jointly demand almost 40,000 euros in damages.

“The first and most important thing I want to mention is that I am so grateful that my son survived this. It gives me strength and keeps me going. February 27 could also have been his death anniversary, the thought is unbearable. How can you think of something like this if you’ve already thought of it and then also implement it? Our sweet little son who trusts you completely by sticking a knife in his chest?”, his mother says during the session.

“After the incident, our son is very shy and anxious. I had to stay close to him or he would panic. He had frequent nightmares. It is unbelievable that he survived this. He is developing wonderfully well. But he has to deal with the fact that you, his father, wanted to kill him.”

“I can’t imagine you wanted this, I can see you love him. I don’t think you’re a bad person.” Afterwards, the man turns to his ex. “Thank you. You’re right, it’s terrible. Everything you say,” the man says, crying. “It shouldn’t have happened. I shouldn’t have done it. It’s horrible. Our sweet, beautiful boy.”

Psychologists have diagnosed the man with an autistic spectrum disorder. The man also has narcissistic features and is above average intelligent. In addition, the man has difficulty processing stimuli and used cannabis and alcohol. During the stabbing incident, the man struggled to calm down. “It’s an accumulation of stimuli, a meltdown that he couldn’t stop.” According to psychologists, he is less accountable, but it can be attributed to him. There is a moderately increased risk that he will do it again if he does not receive treatment. Experts advise the court to impose conditions on him for tbs.