2023-07-05 10:24:00
His release sparked outrage. Since the Flemish newspapers echoed this Wednesday, July 5, 2023 the conditional release of the Dutchman Pieter C., the most severely punished pedophile in history in Belgium with a sentence of 19 years in prison and 15 years in prison. available to the sentencing court, reactions are multiplying. If some people find this situation “scandalous” – the man was released seven years after his conviction, i.e. a third of his sentence -, Child Focus, through the voice of its general manager Heidi De Pauw, considers that this release “ is a slap in the face of all victims, of all services, including the police”.
Pieter C. is a pedophile such as has hardly been known in Flanders in recent decades. Under the nickname “pieter0167”, he collected numerous child pornography images. Antwerp investigators found more than 400,000 child pornography films and photos on his computer at home, cleverly distributed in locked folders.
Even if this conditional release, granted by the court for the application of sentences (TAP), and whose motivations we do not know, may seem shocking, there is nothing surprising about it. At least, concerning the main sentence of imprisonment pronounced. “The law provides that, in order to be able to apply for conditional release, the convict must have served a third of his sentence (or of his sentences if there are several)”, underlines on the site www.justice-en-ligne.be Damien Vandermeersch, Advocate General at the Court of Cassation and Professor at the Catholic University of Louvain and at the Saint-Louis-Brussels University.
For persons sentenced to a custodial sentence of more than three years and less than thirty years, the correctional court or the assize court may also provide for a security period of two-thirds of the sentence when the conviction relates to one of the serious facts covered by the law. In this case, there was therefore a provision to the court for the application of sentences, that is to say a sentence decided by the judge, in addition to a main prison sentence. It is pronounced in order to protect society from persons who have committed serious attacks on the integrity of persons. It may therefore seem surprising that the Dutchman was indeed released so early.
On April 28, 2023, the Ghent sentence enforcement court therefore released Pieter C. discreetly, subject to conditions. Walter Van Steenbrugge and Dirk Grootjans, lawyers for Pieter C., indicated that the condemned “was punished far too harshly at the time”. “Many prison psychiatric reports have proven beneficial. From now on, he will be subject to Dutch justice and will strictly respect the conditions.” Pieter C. is also reportedly under medical supervision.
“Conditional release can only be granted if there are no counter-indications on the part of the condemned person (a single counter-indication is sufficient to justify a refusal)”, recalls Damien Vandermeersch. “Under the terms of the law, these contraindications relate to the absence of prospects for the social reintegration of the convicted person; the risk of the commission of new serious crimes; the risk that the convict will bother the victims; the attitude of the convicted person towards the victims of the offenses which gave rise to his conviction; the efforts made by the convicted person to compensate the civil party, taking into account the financial situation of the convicted person as it has evolved by his act since the perpetration of the acts for which he was convicted.
Particular attention is devoted, on the one hand, to the “reintegration-risk of recidivism” aspect and, on the other hand, to the current and future behavior of the convicted person vis-à-vis the victims, further specifies the Advocate General.
In addition, the convict’s file “must contain a social reintegration plan indicating the reintegration prospects of the convict”. “The reintegration plan contains, as a rule, an accommodation component, an occupational component (training, employment, activities, etc.) and a component relating to compensation for victims. It may also contain specific aspects, such as medical, psychological or psychiatric monitoring or social guidance.
”It is better to release earlier under good conditions than to release later without conditions”
”The granting of conditional release is always a bet on the future: a bet on the capacity of the convicted person to be able to reintegrate but also on the capacity of our society to be able to offer him the framework and the means for this reintegration” , further specifies Damien Vandermeersch on the site www.justice-en-ligne.be. It should always be kept in mind that in the interest of society, it is better to release earlier under good conditions than to release later without conditions. Indeed, the recidivism rate is much higher for convicts who go full sentence than for those released on parole.”
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