A 29-year-old man is facing a 15-month prison sentence for repeated domestic abuse. In one incident, Het Laatste Nieuws reports, the suspect used a baby as a “human shield” as officers attempted to arrest him for violence against his partner.
In July 2020, passers-by reported a young woman crying for help from a balcony at an address in Ghent. The victim was attempting to defend herself from an onslaught from her abusive partner. When police arrived at the address, the suspect picked up their child in a bid to keep police at bay.
In court, the jury learned that this was not the first time that the suspect had been violent towards the victim. A year after using his child as a human shield against police, the suspect is said to have hit his partner in public in an Ikea with a curtain rod.
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The man has reportedly admitted to the charges but has downplayed the evidence, claiming that he had also been attacked by his partner.

