“A quarrel about seven decades that got out of hand,” said the public prosecutor about the serious conflict on April 11, 2021 at the then home in Assen of a 49-year-old man from Ekehaar. For aggravated assault with a crowbar, the public prosecutor demanded a prison sentence of one year, half of which was suspended.
The suspect had a business dispute with the victim from Assen. He was walking with his wife that Sunday in April. He kept getting apps from the Assenaar about money that still had to be paid. The tone became increasingly menacing, the suspect said. In the car he still called the Assenaar. Much to his wife’s displeasure: ‘it’s Sunday after all, stop that’.
The man was hardly home when he received a visit from the Assenaar. “He got out of his car furiously, with big eyes,” said the forty-year-old. According to the suspect, he was threatened by the Assenaar. Both got into a struggle, the man said. According to him, he and his rival fell and the other was injured by a post or a tile.
The man in his forties called the police himself. He wanted to report a threat. But the alleged threatener was so injured that he was taken to the hospital. The doctors were shocked by the injury. They saw a gaping hole and bone fragments in the brain. The man needed immediate surgery.
The opinions of the suspect’s neighbor and wife about the brawl differ. The beating with a crowbar was not seen by anyone. Still, the prosecutor does not believe the injury was caused by a fall. That scenario doesn’t match the head wound and the multiple injuries on the victim’s body.
No crowbar has been found that would have been used in the fight. The 40-year-old’s lawyer asked for an acquittal due to insufficient evidence. The suspect moved to Ekehaar after the incident. Out of fear, the victim moved from Assen to ‘some distance away’, he said during his right to speak.
The court will rule in two weeks.