A 33-year-old man from Emmen who threatened an employee of a Jumbo branch in Emmen with a knife in October was sentenced on Friday by the police judge in Leeuwarden to six months in prison, two months of which were suspended.
The Emmenaar has a criminal record and served several probation periods from previous sentences. The judge ruled that he must still serve two suspended prison sentences of nine weeks and 56 days. At the hearing, the shoplifter expressed regret to the Jumbo employee whom he had injured with a knife. “I understand that it has had an impact,” said the suspect.
He had stolen items – including nasal spray, throat lozenges and hemorrhoid wipes – and was approached by an employee as he left the store. The suspect said he panicked. A struggle ensued in which the shoplifter grabbed the employee around the neck and produced a knife.
Because the suspect swung the knife around him, the shop assistant was hit on the shoulder. The thief fled and was arrested near the store.
He told the judge that he was addicted to heroin and cocaine at the time. He wanted to sell the stolen items to buy drugs. During his time in prison, he was self-rehabbed in three months.
He wants to stay clean and fight to stay off drugs, he said at the hearing. However, the probation service painted a gloomy picture: in the past eight attempts have been made to offer the suspect help and to get him off the drugs. He has been in a clinic twice. Each time he fell back into his old habits. The probation service saw no point in offering the man help and guidance again.
Guidance was something his client really needed, argued lawyer Thei Houben. “We cannot leave this man to his fate.” The judge was sensitive to the lawyer’s argument. Despite the negative probation service advice, the judge ruled that the Emmenaar must report to the probation service and that he must be treated by addiction care.
If the probation service considers it necessary, it will also have to cooperate in an assisted living process. The judge called the threat with the knife “a terrifying fact”. The man has to pay for the shop assistant’s broken clothing. The public prosecutor had demanded six months in prison plus two suspended prison sentences.