A woman from Oss says she was raped several times by her boyfriend during her relationship. She reported the incident to the police and on Friday the justice department demanded a year and a half in prison for the man. But it remains to be seen whether Mari van L. (60) from Oss will also receive that punishment. The alleged rapes took place in the 1990s and are therefore still very difficult to prove.
The emotions in the court in the Bosch were no less on Friday morning. The woman only wanted to enter the courtroom when Mari was already in his seat, because she did not want to look at him. She regularly became emotional and once even walked away angrily, shouting ‘dirty liar’.
She responded to the denial of her ex, Mari van L. He said that he had a nice relationship with her for ten or eleven years until 2000 and that he had never actually loved anyone more than her. There was really no forced sex. Handcuffs, forced insertion of objects, assault, forced sex? Everything didn’t add up either.
The exes couldn’t be much further apart, even after decades. The woman said very emotionally during her right to speak that her life had been destroyed by Mari. “I still feel the consequences every day,” she said in an angry voice. “I was only 17 when I came to you. You abused my trust. You abused and abused me again and again.”
Mari van L. actually shrugged his shoulders a bit about those allegations. However, he often became emotional when he thought back to that beautiful relationship, as he described it. “But the file is simply not correct,” he insisted. “Sex and violence do not go together. I do not recognize myself in that,” he said during the hearing.
But that seemed strange, because Mari was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2022 for indecency with his stepchildren. Even then, he completely denied that he had performed sexual acts on the two daughters and that he forced his stepson to have sex with his older sisters. ‘The suspect manipulated the very vulnerable victims and frightened them. This allowed the abuse to continue for years, the court wrote in 2022 about the events in the relationship he had from 2004.
And because of that fornication case, the rapes and assaults in the new case are seen in a different light. But the question is whether that counts legally. The prosecutor saw a lot of supporting evidence in statements from people at the time, who said that the woman was indeed forced to have sex or play with a dildo and ‘often had bumps and bruises’. There is also a large list from that time with treatments from the GP.
“If I said no, then it had to happen,” the woman said about sex with Mari. She talked about fear of blows, violence, sexual coercion and the use of objects. But Van L. vehemently denied this: “Never. What would I attach handcuffs to? I am not in favor of that.”
And so the yes-nothing continued throughout the session. Between both exes, but especially by the public prosecutor and Mari’s lawyer. According to the officer, Mari raped his girlfriend several times in the 1990s, ‘under threat of violence’. According to the officer, the fact that the file is 25 years old does not make it less credible. “Sex cases are rarely overflowing with evidence, but there is plenty of supporting evidence here,” she said. The abuse has now expired, but the rapes have not.”
According to the lawyer, Mari should be acquitted. “He denies and there are no independent witnesses,” he said, also pointing out that ‘statements that are 25 to 30 years old’ should be viewed with caution.
In the meantime, Mari kept going on about all kinds of things and the judge had to interrupt him regularly. It turns out that he doesn’t have an easy life in prison. Due to his conviction for indecency, he regularly got into fights and he is already missing several teeth due to fights. He has now been transferred nine times, he said.
And that life in prison could be lengthened by a new sentence. If he is sentenced to a year and a half in prison for rape, this will be in addition to the eight-year prison sentence he is currently serving.
The verdict in this case is on December 19.
Here you can read all the stories from Omroep Brabant about crime and criminality.