William D.B (52) from the municipality of Diksmuide in the West Flanders province will be tried before the Assize court for the murder of his partner, Isabelle Deschodt (39), in July 2017.
The woman was killed in their apartment, and died of a gunshot wound to the neck, coming from an antique rifle.
The man said that he came home one evening and found his partner, who he had been together with for several years, in a puddle of blood. According to his testimony, she was stabbed in the neck in the park closeby, reports Het Nieuwsblad.
However, no blood was found in the stairwell. During a second autopsy, the physician found a bullet in the woman's neck, after which the man changed his statement.
He said that he was cleaning his antique Liègeois rifle, a family heirloom, when it accidentally went off. According to him, he had accidentally shot his partner, with fatal consequences.
However, during the reconstruction, that statement proved unbelievable as well. According to the weapons expert, the suspect could not have hit the victim from the position that he said he was in. Additionally, the shot was fired from a very close range, which is not in line with his previous statements either. Still, the man kept insisting it was an accident, Het Laatste Nieuws.
He has been in pre-trial detention since the incident. The case was referred to the Bruges Assize Court, where he will be tried for murder.
There is no date for the trial yet.
Maïthé Chini
The Brussels Times
