MAASTRICHT - A 22-year-old Maastricht resident was sentenced last week to three years in prison plus tbs with compulsory treatment for attempted manslaughter of a one-and-a-half-year-old toddler. Justice accused the man of deliberately putting the little boy, his stepchild, under a hot shower spray of between 75 and 85 degrees Celsius last summer.
The little boy suffered burns over 45 percent of his body, but will recover. According to attorney R.M., P. Szymkowiak, although his client deliberately put the little boy under the hot shower out of sheer desperation, he had absolutely no intention of killing the child. "He just didn't know what to do anymore. The child had a habit of undoing his poopy diaper and smearing his excrement everywhere and even eating it. Other measures had no effect, so my client finally resorted to the hot shower. He now regrets that terribly." Because the little boy, his girlfriend's son, was screaming beforehand, M. would not have realized that he was screaming in pain at the time.

An investigation into how long M. kept the beam pointed at the little boy turned up nothing, Szymkowiak said.

According to counsel, it is important that his client receive treatment as soon as possible. Behavioral experts ruled that M. has a multiple personality disorder. Reason for the lawyer to argue that it makes no sense to put M. in prison for a long time before treating him.