Belgian Teacher Ronald Janssen Goes on Trial in Tongeren for the Murders of Three Young People
Janssen had already confessed to the killings. A jury of seven men and five women was chosen on the first day, and the trial was expected to last a month.
Published
Ronald Janssen, a Belgian schoolteacher, had confessed to killing three young people. On September 20, 2011, his trial for their murders opened before the Limburg assize court in Tongeren.
The first day, which lasted about two and a half hours, was taken up mostly with choosing a jury of seven men and five women from 120 prospective jurors, the Belgian daily La DH reported. Janssen, pale and thin, refused through his lawyer, Zvonimir Miskovic, to be sketched. Michel Jordens presided over the court, and Patrick Boyen was the prosecutor. The trial proper was to begin that Friday with the reading of the indictment and Janssen's questioning, and was expected to last about a month.
Janssen, a secondary school teacher and father of two, had confessed that in 2007 he abducted and murdered Annick Van Uytsel, an 18-year-old student who was riding home from a party, and that on the night of January 1, 2010, he shot dead his 18-year-old neighbor Shana Appeltans and her 21-year-old boyfriend, Kevin Paulus. Some points remained in dispute, including whether he had sexually assaulted Appeltans. Detectives from the Leuven police faced criticism that Janssen could have been detained earlier. On October 20 the jury found him guilty on all nine charges after deliberating for two hours.
La DH wrote on September 17 that Janssen's confessions would be put to the jurors the following Wednesday, but its first-day report said the trial proper would begin that Friday with the reading of the indictment.
Sources
- Ronald Janssen triple murder trial starts, VRT NWS
- Procès Janssen: le premier jour de procès fini après deux heures et demie, La DH
- Ronald Janssen: les aveux du tueur en série, La DH
- Triple murderer Ronald Janssen found guilty, VRT NWS