Have police done enough to help murdered Maïlys?

During the assize process today, the police officers who made the determinations at the places where Alexander D. committed the murders were discussed. It was the defense of Maïlys’ mother who asked to what extent the local police were already aware of the threatening situation before the murder. It turned out that the girl felt enormously threatened by her ex-boyfriend before the fatal evening.

“Never made a report”

Also in the 4 years leading up to the assize process, both the local police of Bruges and Kouter were already scheduled by the Committee P and the next of kin. The question is whether the stalked girl was sufficiently protected. And more importantly, whether anything was being done to track down or interrogate her stalker.

“The police knew for sure, because the police were telephoned. Within the police zone where they lived, an official report was never drawn up. Even though it was clearly stated that Alexander D. had told her that he had a knife to cut her. to kill,” says the lawyer of Maïlys’ mother, Kris Vincke. “She had completely lost her faith in the police. We also know that a video was recorded during the facts in which Maïlys says: ‘I will record it all or they will not believe me again’.”

“We were able to immediately determine that Maïlys had filmed the arrival of her grandparents,” said inspector Tim Follebout. “The girl looked very frightened, while her grandparents tried to calm down Alexander. At that time, only the sound was being recorded. We hear two people talking to a person they call Alex, who speaks with a Dutch accent.”

Police response

The Public Prosecution Service still considered the earlier interventions of the police. For example, a comrade of Maïlys was threatened with a knife by the accused, while she herself was harassed several times. According to lawyer Vincke, those complaints were treated rather lightly. But it seems that the first authors were not even aware of the earlier stalking. “We couldn’t verify that that night because the computer system was faulty,” it sounded.

In the questions of the defense, the chairman referred to the fact that Alexander D. is on trial and not the police. Nevertheless, Kouter police responds to our editors: “It is a complex file. There has been a lot of criticism of the way in which our police handles these kinds of cases. But this is also traumatizing for our people. The criticism has led to a kind of self-reflection As a result, we are now even more responsive to matters such as intimate partner violence, stalking and harassment,” said spokesperson Annemie Wittesaele.