The Leuven correctional court has sent two men from Scherpenheuvel-Zichem to jail for detaining and torturing their middle-aged neighbour for hours.
Dimitri V. (32) and Axel B. (29) were sentenced to seven and three years in prison respectively.
The incidents occurred in 8 September 2022, after Dimitri V.’s army rucksack, containing papers and his keys, went missing. He claimed the victim, G.B., who is in his fifties, had lost the bag.
The three men set out to look for the missing bag, but failed to find it, and returned to Axel B.’s flat. In frustration, Dimitri V. took out his air pistol, which he had been carrying all day, and shot G.B.’s mobile phone to pieces.
G.B. and Axel B. then went looking for the bag once again, and again did not find it. Dimitri V. went completely berserk. He hit G.B. several times and shot him up to 12 times with the air pistol. Axel B. later stated that he did not dare to look at the victim because he was beaten up so badly that it made him gag.
The co-perpetrator set about cleaning up G.B.’s blood, but no-one contacted the emergency services.
They called G.B.’s girlfriend at about 3 a.m. on the following day to pick him up, saying he had fallen down the stairs, and the victim was finally taken to hospital in an ambulance.
Doctors there found that he had suffered severe superficial injuries from blows, probably with a baseball bat and fists, and a brain haemorrhage. He also had to have three air pistol bullets surgically removed from his body.
The court appointed an expert to determine the exact damage G.B. suffered. Pending that investigation, it awarded him €7,500 in damages.
