A 41-year-old man who, among other things, drove into a police officer with an excavator in his hometown Tilburg last year, no longer has to go to jail. According to the judge in Breda, he has been in pretrial detention long enough. De Tilburger still has to pay compensation of several thousand euros to the victims who, according to the judge, were terrified.
The man caused the consternation on Sunday 19 June. He was lost after using speed for four days in a row. He was heavily intoxicated and tried to open a car. When he failed to do so, he threw an iron milk churn through one of the car’s windows.
A man who was in the car wanted to visit his horse that morning, but had a traumatic experience. A year later, he still suffers from it.
One of the alarmed officers who wanted to arrest the Tilburger also got the fright of his life. The man had stepped into an excavator and destroyed a police car and a flower box. He was also accused of driving into that agent deliberately.
Two weeks ago, during the court case, this was disputed by his lawyer Pieter van de Kerkhof. The lawyer mentioned another reason for a light sentence: his client has already been in pretrial detention for nine months. Van de Kerkhof was served at his beck and call.
Drug use renounced
The perpetrator himself said he could barely remember anything that happened that day. That the police fired a number of warning shots and that they used pepper spray and a taser to calm him down? It’ll be fine. The Tilburger does not remember it. “And that’s not a lame excuse or bullshit. Now I know what drugs can do to you. I no longer use. It’s bad enough what I’ve done,” he said. He also apologized to the man who was in the wrecked car.
When he went crazy, the Tilburger was just free. He was still on probation after a previous conviction. The public prosecutor therefore thought that he should still serve a three-month suspended prison sentence. Plus another half a year. The judge therefore thinks that is too much, the suspended sentence still hangs over the Tilburger’s head.