Yesterday, Dean Verberckmoes, the four-year-old child who has been missing for six days and from St. Nicholas, was found dead in the province of Zeeland in the Netherlands. The Dutch police and the East Flanders prosecutor’s office confirmed this on Monday evening. By Sunday, it had been established that Dave De Kock and the child were in the Netherlands. In the followingnoon on Monday, the 30-year-old was arrested, he will have to be heard once more. A medical examiner will examine the body of the victim to determine the causes of death and all other traces will also be analyzed by the laboratory.
The day following this sad discovery, the boy’s mother delivers details to our colleagues from Het Nieuwsblad on the links that united them with Dave De Kock. It thus appears that he regularly babysat his son with the help of his girlfriend.
“Dean knew them well, he loved being there. He was happy to go to them”
, says Elke Verberckmoes, the mother of the victim. She confides that she was aware that the man had been sentenced, without knowing the reason.
“I knew he was convicted and went to jail, but I didn’t know why. He only told me he was innocent and had been there for 10 years. I told him confidence. I never felt like he was hiding things.”
It was only following the wanted notice for her son was published that she learned that he had been convicted of the death of another child. “
I’ve been sent articles regarding his past. I was shocked. If I had known that, I would never have trusted him.”
Dave De Kock’s girlfriend lied, according to Dean’s mom
Dean’s mother also accused Dave De Kock’s girlfriend, also arrested by the police, to have lied to protect the latter. “She did not say last week that Mr De Kock had left with the boy. She claimed the child was still with her. It wasn’t until Saturday that she confessed that Mr. De Kock had taken Dean. When an investigation was launched following Dave De Kock disappeared last weekend, it failed to explain what clothes he was wearing when he left. What she finally detailed followingwards. This was not mentioned in the investigation report“, explained the mother to the Flemish daily. She added that Dave De Kock’s partner wanted to protect him so that he does not return to prison.
The father of Miguel, the first victim of Dave De Kock, reacts to the death of Dean: “Disappointment, anger, sadness”
Dave De Kock, arrested in connection with the death of little Dean, had already been sentenced in February 2010 by the Turnhout Criminal Court to 10 years in prison for acts of child abuse, which caused death. “He served his sentence which ended in December 2018,” said the prosecution.
Little Miguel, 2, had been thrown once morest the bars of his bed before being pushed down the stairs. De Kock had also hit him with a vacuum cleaner. He had succumbed to his injuries.
This Monday, Miguel’s father reacted to our colleagues from VTM Nieuws. He struggled to describe how he felt when the 4-year-old boy died. “Disappointment, anger, sadness. I’m shot. It’s hard to describe,” complained Mike Van Kriekinge. This drama plunges Miguel’s father back into the horror of his son’s death.
His thoughts are especially with Dean’s mother. “If I can help or support her, I really wish I might. At this time, I can only wish her, and her family and friends, my deepest condolences.” man, tears in his eyes.
Before little Dean’s death was confirmed, Mike Van Kriekinge had already told our colleagues that he believed that Dave De Kock should have “been sentenced to life” following the facts for which he was sentenced. “It’s not possible, once more. When I heard it was Dave De Kock, I mightn’t believe it.”
Dave De Kock might not be placed in a psychiatric institution for lack of places
Dave De Kock had been the subject during his first detention in prison of a request for placement in a psychiatric institution, but this might not be concretized for lack of places, indicated Tuesday the Belgian Minister of Justice, Vincent Van Quickenborne (Open Vld). In 2010, the person concerned had already been sentenced to a ten-year prison term for the death in 2008 of a 2-year-old boy from Ravels, a border town with the Netherlands.
De Kock served his entire sentence for these facts, so that following his release in 2018, no further legal action was applicable to him, explained the minister on Tuesday morning on the airwaves of VRT radio.
During his incarceration in the prison of Tilburg (Netherlands), it was requested that De Kock be placed in a psychiatric institution. “But at the time there were no places, with the consequence that the justice system decided to move him to another prison, that of Ruiselede (in Belgium, editor’s note), where he had followed a program to get rid of of his addiction to drugs”.
“The big problem in our country is that high-risk psychiatric cases, therefore people with a very heavy criminal record, are very often quite simply deprived of any placement because their criminal record is too heavy and no place “There is no provision for such cases. We have since invested in the construction of psychiatric internment centers. We should also have places in highly secure psychiatric institutions for convicts with heavy profiles of this type”, pleaded the Minister.
In his view, more resources should also be invested in these infrastructures, as well as in specific care for these people.
