Assize poison murder: “I wanted them dead, I am very sorry now”
Pieter P. admitted at his trial in Bruges that he had been planning for months to kill his partner Dana Van Laeken (36) with miracle beans. During the interrogation by chairman Pascale Clauw, he mainly hammered on the violence that the victim would have used against the children.
As usual, the accused first told about his childhood. It turned out that he was barely nine years old when his mother died from a blowtorch while eating gourmet. P. also explained the divorce from his first wife, with whom he has two sons. “The house was empty when I came home from football. She had left only the dog, some clothes, a bed and a chair.”
“Nose broken with adapter”
In his new relationship with Dana Van Laeken, according to the Lauwenaar, problems quickly arose between the victim and his children. “The boys were playing on a large car mat in the living room. My youngest son did not dare to answer immediately when Dana asked something. At that moment Dana threw a knife at the children. It ended up in my oldest son’s knee. ” Yet they had another daughter together in 2015. “That aggression lasted until birth. Not only against Elijah, but also against myself.” At the request of a jury member, P. later stated that Dana Van Laeken once broke his nose due to a blow with an adapter.
In the summer of 2018, the accused already clearly started to contact other women, in his own words out of fear of being alone. “I knew then that something had to be done. Either break up or make the sad decision to hurt Dana. Dana had to get out of the kids’ lives and out of my life.” Pieter P. repeated several times that he saw no other way out. “I was afraid to go through the same thing again as the first time. I didn’t want my daughter to go through the same thing as my youngest son.”
“Death came unexpectedly”
Subsequently, chairman Pascale Clauw asked a lot of questions about the various purchases of seeds of the miracle tree. According to the accused, he only administered them after a concrete case of aggression, although the exact reason was not always clear. On September 20, 2018, he administered the castor seeds for the first time. “I think it was in yogurt for breakfast, or something with nuts.” In the following weeks he mixed the poisonous beans again with the yogurt and also in a carpaccio. Nevertheless, her death on the night of October 12 to 13 came unexpectedly, according to her own words. “She was indeed meant to die, but when she was sick she didn’t have time to spend with my son. I felt guilty, but knew I had to stick to my story. Knowing that no one would ever did to your children, made it more bearable.”
Finally, on May 22, 2019, P. made full confessions to the investigating judge. “I just want to say that I am very sorry that I did that. There is no one who deserves to die like that. I did not know that she had suffered so much in the hospital.” Master Jef Vermassen, lawyer for the civil party, asked whether the accused had never considered stopping the use of miracle beans after a few attempts. “No, because I knew that the violence against the children was not going to stop.” P. also called it normal that his son sometimes reacted to Dana. “What my son has been through, people don’t do to animals yet.”