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On 29 March, 2017, 18-year-old Valentin Vermeesch from Statte (Huy), Belgium, was reported missing b

On 29 March, 2017, 18-year-old Valentin Vermeesch from Statte (Huy), Belgium, was reported missing by his father. The investigation into his disappearance, however, only began on April 7, 2017, after a call from Valentin’s grandmother to the 101, indicating that a man, whom she did not know, told her that her grandson had been thrown alive in the river Meuse. Valentin’s family were extremely worried about his sudden disappearance as he had special needs and was deemed mildly handicapped. On 14 April, the body of Valentin was found by a walker in the river Meuse, just as the man had told Valentin’s grandmother. His hands had been tied behind his back and there were two towels around his neck. From that moment, a murder investigation was launched. The next day, on 15 April, several youths came to the police, explaining that 18-year-old Killian Wilmet, supposedly Valentin’s friend, had shown them videos of abuse he inflicted on Valentin. The youths said they did not show up earlier because they did not believe Killian Wilmet’s story and did not understand the seriousness of the acts. It was not until Valentin’s body was found and his death confirmed that they decided to come to the police. That evening, 22-year-old Dorian Daniels surrendered to the police. He admitted having participated but later confessed that he had a much more active role in the murder of Valentin. The next day, 21-year-old Alexander Hart, 22-year-old Belinda Donnay, 22-year-old Loïck Masson and 18-year-old Killian Wilmet were all arrested. From the beginning, the group of friend’s versions of events of that fateful night diverged, the suspects contradicted each other. Despite the contradicting stories, it was eventually uncovered that Valentin had endured a very long scene of violence and torture.

One night, the group of five friends invited him over to the apartment of one of the suspects. There, Valentin was subject to beatings, cigarette butts were stuck up his nose, beer capsules put in his mouth, forced to masturbate in front of the others, forced to drink urine, was raped and then forced to put insert a bottle in his anus. The next morning, he was dumped into the river while alive with his hands tied behind his back and died by drowning. It is thought that Alexander Hart and Belinda Donnay are the two accused likely to have pushed him into the water. Belinda says she did not throw him into the river while Alexander admits to pushing him. Valentin, however, put up a lot of resistance but at one point he fell. The investigators’ testimony also revealed that Alexander Hart and Belinda Donnay allegedly assaulted another youngster in 2016, humiliating him on the occasion of his 18th birthday. Valentin was also assaulted in 2016 by Alexander Hart and another youngster. All five were convicted of murder as well as the torture, inhumane treatment, rape, indecent assault, beatings, death threats and kidnapping of Valentin Vermeesch. In June, 2019, Alexander Hart and Belinda Donnay were sentenced to life imprisonment. Killian Wilmet, who was a minor at the time of the crimes, was sentenced to 29 years imprisonment, Loïck Masson was sentenced to 27 years imprisonment and Dorian Daniels was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment. Both Alexander Hart and Belinda Donnay could be released on parole in 15 years as life sentence prisoners in Belgium are theoretically eligible for parole after 15 years of imprisonment, meaning that the other three culprits could be released after serving just a third of their sentence. In short, after serving one-third of a given sentence, any inmate may apply for parole (or after two-thirds of a given sentence, if the inmate is a repeat offender).

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