AMSTERDAM — A 28-year-old mentally ill man who killed his baby niece by throwing her out of a Sittard apartment window last year was jailed for two years by the Maastricht Court on Thursday.

The man, identified as S. A., was also sentenced to compulsory TBS psychiatric treatment for the killing of the 16-month-old girl. She was thrown from a fifth-floor window.

The court ruled that at the time of the offence, the defendant was in state of greatly diminished accountability. This was proven in a psychiatric assessment conducted by the Pieter Ban Centrum (PBC), the judiciary’s observation clinic.

It was found that the man is intellectually disabled and he was also diagnosed with severe psychological disorders. He is schizophrenic and hears screaming voices in his head.

The sentence handed down by the court is equal to the demand from the prosecution, newspaper De Telegraaf reported.

A. cannot remember the incident and the motive for the killing remains a mystery. Psychiatric experts with the PBC believe he was in a psychosis at the time of the killing.

The sentence of compulsory TBS treatment means that A. could effectively be detained for life because psychiatric experts can recommend his continued detention every two years.

[Copyright Expatica News 2004]

Subject: Dutch news