The court in The Hague sentenced Arnold O. on Wednesday to five years in prison and compulsory psychiatric treatment. The man killed his girlfriend last July by stabbing her 258 times in her Zoetermeer home.

The verdict is not in line with the sentence demanded by the Public Prosecution Service (OM), which had demanded a ten-year prison sentence and compulsory psychiatric treatment.

According to the court, the crime “is absolutely out of the ordinary in terms of violence and gruesomeness.” Experts say O. was psychotic at the time of the crime. The court considers him to have diminished responsibility.

O. committed the crime in the presence of their two-week-old baby. He filmed the 22-year-old woman with her own phone during the stabbing. He then took a selfie with the baby, who was unharmed. He later stated that he took the photo because he wouldn’t see the baby again for a long time.

At the time the photo was taken, the police were already at the door. They had been alerted by a nurse from the child health clinic, who was about to visit the mother and child. O. was arrested on the spot.

O. had already been convicted of assault

O. had previously been convicted of assaulting the victim. He had just been released from prison a month after serving a ninety-day sentence.

The perpetrator accused his girlfriend of cheating. He also suspected that another man, not he, might be the baby’s father. But according to the prosecutor, nothing points to that. “It was all in his head; it was a delusion.”

The victim’s family was concerned about the strained relationship. They were about to place her with relatives in Belgium. The suspect and the victim were already living apart.