Assizes: Defendant already used violence against previous partners
In the beginning of his relationship with Steven S. everything seemed to go well, until the accused started drinking more. “At the cafe he held back, but at home it started. Banging fights. If he didn’t like it, he started hitting. I ended up in hospital twice. I had surgery on my eye and my jawbone was broken.” S. also testified that the third partners in their love triangle should intervene. “Otherwise I wouldn’t be here anymore.”
Steven M. always apologized for his behavior, so they ended up staying together for three years. “I am a person who does not give up, who always tries to see the good in people.” Finally, S. stated that a scan may have identified a problem in the accused’s brain. “Maybe that’s why he was so aggressive. It’s a pity that nothing was done about it after all those police interventions in all those previous relationships.” The defense noted that there is no trace of those interventions and of alleged complaints in the file.
Yannick V. confirmed that the love triangle caused a lot of jealousy. “The problem was that he was very aggressive when he had been drinking. He once put his foot on Steven S.’s throat. Then I intervened to calm him down.” The witness described M. as a manipulator and a liar, but also stayed with him for another three years after S.’s departure. “That was a big mistake. I was often beaten when I asked where he had been. In the end I left myself. I had done the night at work and when I came home he was in bed with someone else.”
Patrick N. remembered that the accused made a good impression at first. “In love is a big word, but I felt good with him at the time. I didn’t think that was an ugly man then. He was always friendly and social.” However, Steven M. soon started using violence again. “When he was sober it wasn’t so bad. But I don’t think it was the alcohol alone. It was too bad.”
On November 1, 2011, the situation got completely out of hand when N. indicated that he did not want a dog. “Luckily I had that much strength when he tried to strangle me, or I wouldn’t have been here today. I also received about twenty blows and there was a lot of damage to my house.” To his own surprise, the witness heard at the hearing that in 2014 M. had been sentenced to six months’ suspended prison sentence for those offences. “I never wanted that. I’m really sorry about what happened there. You don’t deserve that,” the accused said to him.
Alexis D. also had to deal with serious partner violence during his short relationship with M. “It was like a scene from a horror movie. He had come home under the influence of alcohol and probably drugs. I thought I was going to die that night.” The witness told how he was hit hard and even bitten in the jaw. “He also tried to strangle me. I used all my strength to pry free. I remember he also tried to make me eat animal feces.” The next morning D. was able to escape and inform the police. After earlier violence, he had already tried to raise the alarm in the hospital. “I told the nurse very discreetly that it was partner violence, but unfortunately homosexuals are not taken into account. That time he had hit my head against the glass in the bathroom.”
Just before the lunch break, a former employer of the accused also spoke. As a waiter in a banquet hall in Roeselare, M. was well regarded. “Steven did his job as it should. As an employer, I have never had any complaints about that. He had no problems with anyone at work,” Sabine V testified. The witness hearings will be completed on Wednesday afternoon.