Belgian creche attacker appears in court.
Kim De Gelder appeared before a judge yesterday in Dendermonde where the killings happened as police continued to try to piece together the events of last Friday during which he also injured ten infants and two carers in a local nursery.
Charged with three murders and 12 cases of attempted murder, he has not been co-operating with investigators but has spoken to his lawyer, Jaak Haentjens. He painted a picture for the court of a lonely, disturbed youth who had been hearing voices for some time.
Haentjens told the court that his client was horrified when he was told about the killings but he did not remember anything about them. “He cannot explain what happened because he remembers nothing of the facts”, he said.
De Gelder, who had been moved from Belgium’s high security prison in Bruges to Dendermonde for the court hearing, sat silently throughout, staring in front of him, witnesses said.
Haentjens said the accused came from a warm family but avoided contact with people, including family members. He spent a lot of time alone in his room and moved out of home when he was 18. He had lived alone since then with minimal contact other than a phone call or SMS at Christmas and New Year. Now, in prison, he wants to see nobody, not even his family, Mr Haentjens said.
There was no real murder plan other than a computer print out of a map of Dendermonde with the addresses of three nurseries on it.
