Corné H. (29) took three employees hostage in the Penitentiary Psychiatric Center (PPC) of the prison in Vught on Friday. He initially held three and later two employees under threat of a knife. But how did he get that knife and walk around the department freely?
Vught has 270 places for psychiatric patients, spread over Unit 2 and Unit 3. Corné H. was nursed in Unit 3 of the PPC and within that unit there are different departments in terms of severity. During an open day, in addition to the EBI (Unit 5), this department was also shown to the national press. In a special podcast Cor Bouma tells us more about this psychiatric department.
In 3D there are patients with the most severe disorders, who have no freedom whatsoever. They spend almost all day in their cells and are only allowed to go to another cell with the highest security, for example to sit on an exercise bike. Consultations with a practitioner take place behind glass. According to a spokesperson for the PI Vught, Corné H. was in any case not in this most difficult department.
But there are also departments where the regime is much lighter and Corné H. was probably there. These departments have cells, like in a normal prison, but at the end of the corridor there is a common room. There is a living room furnished with sofas, TV, aquarium and, for example, a billiard table. There is also a kitchen where patients can cook and there is a large communal dining table. Outside there is a large outdoor area where you can also practice sports.
Listen to the special podcast about the hostage situation in Vught below:
During the day and often in the evening, patients are allowed to use the common room. At noon we have lunch together. It could well be that Corné managed to get his hands on a potato peeler from the kitchen to take the employees hostage. But so far no one from PI Vught wants to say anything about that.
The PPC includes people with all kinds of disorders. These are, for example, people who committed a gruesome murder or out of nowhere started stabbing someone else. The PPC is the first stop for them after their crime. Here they are stabilized again with medication, for example. The PPC employs very different staff than those in a regular prison, such as psychologists, psychiatrists and nurses.
In any case, Corné H. was not in the right place. He is a transient, but the judge has ordered him to be in a highly secure TBS clinic. But there is no place there, his lawyer confirms. And so he was still in a department where he didn’t belong. He was sentenced to TBS because he took four people hostage in a café in Ede in March 2024. During the trial it turned out that that was actually a cry for help from H.. He wanted the right help. And it could be that the hostage situation in Vught was also a cry for help.
For the time being, Corné H. is in isolation, it was announced on Monday.
Here you can read all the stories about the hostage situation in the PI in Vught.
