ASSISEN. “Führer order? That’s meant to be funny, isn’t it, Mr Chairman”: accused ‘Tom Spier’ speaking at trial | Interior

Tom Debaillie enters the imposing castle villa behind Kortrijk station with an ankle bracelet. Despite all the previous “antics” of the violent Tom, father Frans – a widower for about six years – brings the prodigal son back. He even gives him an income as a “maid”. It is indeed going well for a while. But not for very long, according to the testimony of the investigators this afternoon.

During her interrogation with the police, the housekeeper cited a series of incidents, Inspector Valerie Deblaere testified. An incident of December 26, 2017 in particular made a big impression on Marie-Jeanne.

“Frans, Tom and she were in the kitchen that day. Frans responded to something his son had said. Tom flew into a rage and dragged the doctor from his chair. He threw it into the corner of the kitchen and began to pound with his fists. When the housekeeper wanted to intervene, she was also beaten. Frans Debaillie fled to his girlfriend’s service flat. When he returned a day later, he found himself locked out. Tom had smashed things up and thrown his computer and files into the water of the canal.” Two and a half years later — after the fact — they are fished out with other evidence.

After more than 40 years of service, Marie-Jeanne leaves the castle. Officially for medical reasons, in reality because she can no longer handle the situation. From then on Tom Debaillie is lord and master on Hoog Mosscher. He sells some stuff in a flea market for several hundred euros. “I don’t steal. I clean up,” it says. In criminal law, that may be true—unless the doctor was already frail due to his age.

Peanuts, however, compared to the rest. An investigation by the Financial Information Processing Unit, charged with investigating suspicious financial transactions related to money laundering, concludes that “it is suspected that Tom had been stealing his father’s assets for a long time”. That case is still pending.

It concerns an amount of approximately 930,000 euros. In the last three months before his death alone, the doctor sponsors against his will – Tom has powers of attorney – for more than 100,000 euros. For the sake of completeness, the accused has a net worth of 2,841,000. That is almost entirely on securities accounts of which his father has the usufruct.

Tom has also been setting the rules at Hoog Mosscher in recent months. “Tür schliessen. Führerbefehl!”, is written in thick black marker at the door. With a few language errors and a swastika.

Chairman Boyen: “What is that, Mr Debaillie?”

Accused: “That is meant to be funny, isn’t it, Mr. Chairman.”

Chairman: “You think that’s funny? Special kind of humour.”

Accused: “Excuse me.”

Chairman: You are destroying part of the castle with that, aren’t you?”

Debaillie: “Oh, that’s at the service entrance. Not in the center of the house.”

Chairman: “Do you think that is appropriate in a house whose history you know? (Hoog Mosscher was bombed on Passion Sunday 1944, not by the Luftwaffe but by the Royal Air Force, ed.)

Debaillie: “I’m not going to answer that. It was not meant to hurt.”

“Chronicle of a death foretold”, is what one of the three sisters of the accused called the run-up to the facts. A gruesome death too, according to the report of the law doctors Werner Jacobs and Babette Van Rafelghem. “Suffocation and respiratory exhaustion from the many rib fractures.” The doctor also had a smashed nose and lower jaw.

Could these facts have been avoided? According to the accused, yes. “I myself never thought of being guided,” said Debaillie when asked by the chairman. “That may be the pity in my file. That I was not obliged to be admitted sooner. After my most serious offenses (a brawl at Kortrijk station, in which the victim was in a coma for twenty days and sustained permanent injuries, ed.) I should have spent a few years in psychiatry. Some people you just have to deal with a bit harder.”

Tom Debaillie had only just been released at the time of the facts. A few hours earlier, the police had arrested and questioned him administratively in connection with a possible arson of a mobile site toilet. During the interrogation, the accused denied that he had anything to do with the arson. During the search, which lasted until just before nine in the evening, nothing was found. Tom Debaillie was therefore allowed to dispose of it. A few hours later, her father was dead.