Today at 7:30 PM • Updated today at 10:05 PM
The hostage taking by Corné H. in Vught prison started with a paring knife with which he cut a pear. This is what his lawyer Jan-Jesse Lieftink says in the television program VRIJDAG by Omroep Brabant. According to Lieftink, the hostage situation in December last year happened from one moment to the next. “The young employees in the prison are actually not suitable to work well with him.”
Corné H. ended up in the Penitentiary Institution in Vught after he also took four employees hostage in a café in Ede in March 2024. According to TBS lawyer Lieftink, H. got voices in his head while cutting the pear. “He later said that those voices told him to do something with that knife. He didn’t know what exactly.”
When employees asked to return the knife, he refused. “He walked into a room where employees were sitting and said, ‘Close the doors’. He then grabbed a few more knives and closed the room. Employees had to handcuff themselves to a table leg.”
A negotiator started talking to H.. “Inside no time “He already let one of the hostages go because he said she had to pick up her child from daycare,” says Lieftink. The two others stayed behind and he ultimately held them for three hours.
In the latest episode of Crime Explained, Lieftink says that H. was friendly towards his victims during the hostage situation. “They had a drink together and they were allowed to go to the toilet. He eventually let them go in exchange for medication.”
“If something happens, it happens all at once. That’s what makes it so dangerous and unpredictable.”
Discussions with the negotiator show that H.’s goal was to be transferred to another prison in Zwolle. “Corné suffers from four very serious disorders,” says his lawyer. “Autism, PTSD, personality problems and he hears voices. These disorders work together in a certain way and that creates tension. He then ends up in a different world and reality.”
The lawyer says that Corné H.’s tensions cannot be seen and that he cannot therefore be assessed. “You don’t see any emotion in him and you see right through him. He doesn’t feel the tension rising either. If something happens, it happens all at once. That’s what makes it so dangerous and unpredictable.”
Corné H.’s lawyer explains in the podcast exactly why Corné H. needs to go to a TBS clinic as soon as possible:
“We want to prevent new victims.”
“The frustration and powerlessness grows, because you are disappointed every time it doesn’t work out,” says Lieftink, who has tears in his eyes when he talks about it. The case means a lot to him.
“We want to prevent new victims. When I visit Corné, I see the young employees who are not actually suitable to work with him. Then you think: oh my God, as long as it doesn’t happen again. Nobody wants that, not even Corné. He always withdraws, spends 23 hours a day in his cell, where he injures himself.”
At the top of the waiting list
Now, after a year and a half, there seems to be good news for H.: he is at the top of the waiting list. Lieftink hopes that his client will be admitted to a TBS clinic within two or three weeks. The only thing that can stop this is the lawsuit against him about the hostage situation in Vught that is currently underway. This case will not be heard until July 20.