Dutch man jailed in cold case murder of boy, 11

A Dutch court sentenced a man to 12 years in jail over the death of a boy who disappeared from a youth camp two decades ago in a cold case that shocked the Netherlands.

Jos Brech, 58, was found guilty of kidnapping 11-year-old Nicky Verstappen “in an act that led to his death”, sexual assault and being in possession of child pornography.

But judges at the Limburg Regional Court cleared former scout worker Brech of manslaughter charges saying there was not enough evidence to convict him for the boy’s death.

Verstappen’s body was found on 11 August 1998, a day after he disappeared from a youth camp in southern Limburg province.

He likely died from suffocation, but the cause of death could not be established said the judges in the city of Maastricht.

The attack on the boy “happened in such a way that Nicky could not breathe and died due to lack of oxygen”, they said.

They added however that there was “no evidence that the suspect wanted his victim dead”.

The case gripped the country and sparked one of its most extensive murder investigations.

Brech was arrested in Spain in 2018 after police matched DNA found on Verstappen’s clothing to that belonging to Brech, after searching his cabin in the mountainous Vosges region of northeastern France.

Earlier in 2018 some 16,000 men living in the area where Verstappen was murdered volunteered to hand over DNA samples after a call by detectives.

However Brech, who was 35 at the time of the murder, was not among the volunteers and as he had been previously interviewed as a witness, police became suspicious.

Brech’s lawyer said Friday his client would appeal the sentence.