Monday, June 11. First day of trial against Michael Panhuys, confessed murderer of Anne Faber.
Tweets by reporter Saskia Belleman @SaskiaBelleman
A long queue in front of the court in Utrecht, where the criminal case against Michael P., suspected of raping and murdering #Anne Faber, starts at around 9 o'clock.
In addition to the courtroom, the court has set up 3 rooms where the case can be followed via a video link. In one of those halls the family of #Anne Faber is sitting.
Apart from the murder and rape, Michael P. (27) must also account for the abuse of five employees, including two security guards, of the Pieter Baan Centre. He kicked, beat and bit them. #Anne
Two days have been set aside for the case. It is expected that the Public Prosecution Service will come up with the demand tomorrow. The lawyers of P., Niels Dorrestein and Sander de Korte, have announced that they will be asking for TBS.
The lawyers' request to impose TBS is special. It indicates that the investigation in the PBC has shown that Michael P. suffers from a disorder. It can also be an attempt by the defence to protect P. from a long prison sentence.
The front row of seats in the courtroom has been removed. The parquet police will sit right behind Michael P. and must have 2.5 metres of room to manoeuvre. That is telling.
Uncle Hans Faber enters the room with his lawyer.
Michael P. is coming in. He looks around in the full room, somewhat dazed, and sits down between his lawyers.
Two officers of the Procurator General's Office sit behind Michael P. and his lawyers. The court has arrived. Michael P. is reminded of his right to remain silent.
It appears that another witness was heard last week. Soon it will become clear what he witnessed. The public prosecutors are now going to tell of what Michael P. is suspected of.
Michael P. is being prosecuted for murder. He stabbed #Anne dead with a knife after raping her. Further of deprivation of liberty. He tied her hands and forced her to step on his scooter under threat with a knife.
New to the indictment is the assault on 3 employees of the Pieter Baan Centre on 8 February, in the afternoon. In the evening he attacked 2 security guards.
The court will discuss the facts in this way. That may sound businesslike, but it means reviewing in detail what happened on 29 September 2017. Very confrontational for the family
After the disappearance of #Anne her coat, T-shirt, backpack and bicycle were found. Dna on the jacket led to Michael P.
Michael P. was silent after his arrest, but after a few days he started talking. "That was my conscience," he says. He thought he could no longer remain silent.
He remained silent for the first three days because he was angry, says P. "Because I was mistreated during my arrest".
A "information seeker" from the police tried to make him talk. " Hey old chap, there' s a life sentence hanging over your head. Make sure you are ahead of them, it has to come from you".
"I'm not going to be released anyway," Michael P. Now he says he was already planning to talk, "just not with him. Moreover, he wanted to wait for his lawyer. He was in a course, says P. "I was already planning to speak.
On 11 October around 10 o'clock he confessed. And he said it was important for #Anne's parents to be informed immediately. "I also will have a daughter myself".
He told me that he had been "walking around with it for 2 weeks. When I look at my hands, I see the hands of a murderer.
Anne's body was found on Spiekweg in Zeewolde.
Michael P. declared that on the day of the disappearance of #Anne he wanted to do some jobs in a building on the grounds. But first he was going to refuel. He put the tools away in the forest.
After refuelling he drove back, picked up the tools, and then collided with #Anne on a forest path. She threatened to call in the police, he claims. He flipped.
In the forest he raped her. Then came a fight with #Anne, who would have stabbed him in his hand with a knife. He declared that he first intended to leave her in the forest, but changed his mind.
He ties the hands of #Anne, forces her to step on the back seat of his scooter and starts riding. Near the place where she was found, he throws her over a fence. She tries to call for help, he holds the knife to her throat. Then he stabs her dead.
#Anne's belongings were found in different places. "I didn't know what to do with it. He denies that he had any intention of killing Anne.
Murder is punishable by a considerably higher penalty than manslaughter. But the Public Prosecution prosecutes him in 2nd place for qualified manslaughter: killing someone to conceal another crime, such as rape. It carries the same high penalty as murder.
The court will discuss the run-up to the murder. The day started early for Michael P.. He left the clinic at a quarter past seven to buy a gift for the birthday of his mother.
That was strange, because he had done that already before. In addition, the stores were not yet open. Moreover, he was "high on the ritaline". He grinded it and sniffed it.
Why did he do that? "It was nice. Your heartbeat goes up, you feel quite nice for a while. Active and energetic, is the court asking? He confirms that. "But at some point you become suspicious and paranoid.
Michael P. took between 10 and 15 a day. Bought them for 30 cents each. Why did he use so much? How did he feel if he didn't use ritaline? "Good", says P.
His practitioner spoke to him that day, and knew nothing of the Ritalin. Did not notice anything about him either. "You can put on a mask. Just talk, how's it going, this, that, such, so", says Michael P.
He behaved normally towards staff. Not towards co-residents. Why did he turn pull the wool over his therapists' eyes? "In order to be able to do my own things.
On the day of the disappearance of #Anne, near the place where Anne was later found, acquaintances saw Michael P... "I know him", said the friend. "He is an absolute madman.
According to Michael P., no one could have seen him in Zeewolde on 29 September. "I can't be in 2 places at the same time. From the clinic in Den Dolder to Zeewolde it is according to him 1.5 hours by scooter.
In the afternoon he bought a cardigan at the Action in Zeist. He stood out because of his strange behaviour. "Yes, paranoia", he says. "My girlfriend had my other cardigan.
He didn't buy a cardigan to throw it away later on? "No, it would be a shame," he says. Both the fact that he was spotted in Zeewolde, as well as the fact that he bought the cardigan, is seen by the OM as preparation for the murder.
Later in the day he started demolition work in the old kitchen. He usually did this with 2 fellow patients, including the one from whom he bought the ritaline. But that day he wanted to work alone to get the full amount of 60 euros.
It was already dark when Michael P. went out of the door to demolish. With a bag with an impressive amount of tools.
For that demolition he used, among other things, a serrated bread knife to cut open the plasterboard from the ceiling, he told us.
That bread knife does not seem to have been the murder weapon. Michael P. later hid the tool at the track in Den Dolder, close to what he describes as the powerhouse.
He drove through the heavy rain to the old kitchen, picked up the tools, and made sure that people in another building, called the Fifth Season, didn't see him.
Apparently he decided not to demolish, because light was burning in the other building. He left again, and hid the tools in another place.
Why was he hiding the tools? "Because I was afraid I would be caught on an uninsured scooter with all the tools. I was afraid of that.
Michael P.'s phone was off that evening for a long time. Earlier in the evening he apped his girlfriend to say that his phone was malfunctioning. "Was it to prepare your girlfriend for the fact that you wouldn't be available for a long time that evening and she wouldn't get any suspicion?
"That doesn't matter," says Michael P. who then bursts into a tirade about his girlfriend's suspicion, who flipped if he didn't answer the phone immediately.
He told her that he would go to the birthday of his mother, but he did not go. He told that in order to prevent his girlfriend from bothering him during the demolition, says Michael P.
He could easily tell his girlfriend that he was at his mother's birthday party, because his girlfriend and his mother had had a fight. "They had no contact.
He didn't deliberately turn off his phone, says Michael P. "This happened when I threw it into the buddyseat. It has often turned out to be out of order".
Between half past seven and half past eleven that evening he was off the network. "As I said, it fell out before," says Michael P.
Investigations showed that Michael P. must have actively switched off his telephone. Could not have happened because there was no coverage.
Michael P. sticks to it. He did not turn off his phone that evening. "I can't do anything about it if my phone seriously doesn't work. That's why I bought a new one.
His telephone could not be investigated. He threw it away, " simply in the trash. Or did he not want people to discover where he had been? "That doesn't mean anything, they know it now, don't they?
Why did he break the phone in half? "To prevent someone else from walking away with my phone.
That evening Michael P. went to Baarn to refuel his scooter, drove back, and turned into Turfweg. There would have been a collision with #Anne somewhere.
He drove along a kind of riding path to hide his tools. He had a helmet on, "which was fogged by the rain. Still he drove faster than 40 km p/h. At the exit of the forest path he smashed against #Anne.
A reconstruction showed that the distance from the gas station to the site of the collision takes 8 minutes. Michael P. took 40 minutes to do so. "I drove quietly." He denies that he stopped on the way. #Anne
Both Michael P. and #Anne drove over the Biltseweg, from different directions. They passed the intersection at almost the same time. Maybe 30 seconds in between.
Police officers who drove the route on their bikes, and on P.'s scooter, saw each other arrive and recognised each other as well. "I haven't seen anyone," says Michael P.
Did Michael P. wait for her further down the road? "No," he says immediately. He had enough time to do so.
The probability of a collision was investigated. The bike path leads towards the forest path slightly upwards. The agent who cycled the route says that #Anne could easily have come to a quick stop, or could have avoided a clash.
She would also have heard the scooter arrive. But it was much quieter at the time, says Michael P. The exhaust probably cracked when they saty on it together.
Michael P. says that he hit against #Anne who was cycling. He claims that he asked her how she was doing. And realized that his scooter was not insured. "Can we leave it at this?"he would have asked.
"I said something like sorry, sorry, and took off my helmet," Michael P. explained. When he picked up his scooter, the hood fell off. "Oh, I have damage. #Anne wanted to call the police.
Incidentally, that hood has disappeared. Michael P. says he has no idea where it has gone. Investigation of the bicycle and the scooter showed that there was no damage that could have been caused by a collision.
Has there actually been a collision? "Yes", says Michael P. The co-owner of the scooter saw damage to the hood of the scooter. That is gone. Michael P. told him that he had gone down somewhere on a roundabout.
During the collision, the registration plate of the scooter would also have fallen off.
Michael P. was shocked that #Anne wanted to call the police. He says he saw the knife in his bag and pulled it out. "Give me that cancer phone." He forced her to walk into the path. "I don't know why, but it happened.
Why did he force her to walk into the path after he had already disabled her phone? Why did he not leave? "Yes, if only I had done so." Judge: "That is not an answer."
"At that moment it seemed like a good idea," says P. "then she was off the path. The judge finds it implausible that a young woman in a dark forest will make problems with a total stranger who has collided wit her.
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