A man (39) came before the Antwerp Court of Appeal on Wednesday and received a 12-year prison sentence for raping and abusing his girlfriend.
At a hotel on Marnixplaats in the south of Antwerp on 10 May 2018 the man humiliated, brutalised and raped his girlfriend, reports HLN.
The man set fire to his girlfriend's hair and shaved it, put a sock in her mouth, sprinkled pepper in her eyes and forced her to eat cigarette butts. After the young woman became unconscious, the 39-year-old man raped her and urinated in her mouth, reports Nieuwsblad.
The young woman subsequently went to a hotel and the 39-year-old man was arrested two days later, after he reportedly attacked a couple.
The 39-year-old received in March 2019 a 10-year prison sentence from the Correctional Court.
However, the man appealed his initial conviction. He received on Wednesday an even longer sentence from the Court of Appeal.
"The facts are particularly serious," said a representative from the Court of Appeals.
“The defendant consciously went looking for vulnerable women with psychiatric problems. He clearly had little control over his sexual impulses and had no respect whatsoever for the victims," the representative added.
The woman will receive a compensation fee of €13,000.
Evie McCullough
The Brussels Times
