Adam M., a French resident born in 1998, was sentenced on Monday to forty months in prison by the Walloon Brabant Criminal Court for robbery with violence in a Rixensart home, several theft attempts and cannabis dealing.
On the night of 21 March 2024, police received a cut-off call, marked by a scream, from a local resident. Several similar calls from the area, reporting theft attempts, prompted a patrol to rush to the scene.
Evidence revealed that Adam had coerced the occupant of a house into a room and threatened him with a poker, insisting that he keep quiet about his presence.
Adam initially attempted to convince the authorities that the house occupant was the attacker and that he had acted in self-defence.
In court, however, he retracted his statement and admitted that he had intended to steal from the property. He claimed to have no memory of attempted thefts within the same vicinity because he had been drinking heavily.
Adam had previously been arrested thrice in Brussels for shop burglaries and cannabis dealing.
The forty-month prison sentence was in line with the prosecution's request.
