Thieves made their move last week at a cemetery in Boxtel. Items were stolen from two graves, including a bronze statue and souvenirs. It is an example of grave desecration: deliberately destroying, daubing or opening a grave. And that is punishable. You can even screw in the cell for it. But how quickly does this happen and what striking examples of grave desecration do we know in our province?
Are you committing a grave robbery? Then you can get a fine of up to 9000 euros. But the maximum sentence is even a year in prison.
But in many cases, the perpetrators cannot be caught. For example, because there are no images from surveillance cameras and no witnesses. Often very sad and frustrating for the relatives.
It certainly does not always lead to a prison sentence in these cases. On paper, there is a maximum penalty for grave desecration, but in practice the mental health of the perpetrators is also taken into account. There is not always malicious intent, in some cases it is confused people who commit the grave robbery. They get help rather than prison.
In our province there were a number of high-profile cases of grave desecration, for which a punishment was not always handed out.
Child grave
Damian H. stole several urns in 2019 and opened a baby grave to take the body. The girl was wrapped in a white blanket and was lying in a straw basket with a stuffed toy. The blanket, cuddly toy and remains of the basket were found at the grave, the body never came back.
H. eventually received a 114-day prison sentence, but he had already served it in pre-trial detention. And he was sentenced to 240 hours community service. He did not have to go back to prison, but he continued to receive treatment. He was also no longer allowed to enter cemeteries or churches.
Grave of Ajax fan as target
It’s been a few years now, but the grave of Ajax fan Michael van Luik at the Mierlo cemetery was desecrated several times in 2016. A man peed on it and later threw flowers away and took a candlestick with him. In total, the tomb was attacked six times.
A 48-year-old man from Mierlo was arrested for it after he was recognized on camera images. It is unknown what punishment he received.
Defaced war cemetery
And then there was the graffiti on war graves, also in Mierlo, in 2019. Letters were chalked on several graves, which together formed ‘MH 17 lie’. There was also a huge swastika drawn on the inner wall of the chapel. The cemetery contains the graves of many soldiers who fell in East Brabant from September 17, 1944.
The graffiti led to great outrage in the village. A 36-year-old man was arrested the next morning. He was not detained for long when it soon became apparent that he had ‘serious psychological problems’. The perpetrator is being treated.
Stolen burial items
In August 2021, several items were stolen from a cemetery in Oss. Tomb figurines, flower arrangements and candles disappeared. It later turned out that the perpetrator was a Polish man, who stored the items in a squat where he lived.
The police raided there and then tracked down the man. The stolen items were put on Facebook by the police in order to find the owners. It is not known what happened to the Polish man. The police saw this case as vandalism, so the case cannot be retrieved.