A Dutch drug addict who killed three young Irishmen and later ordered an accomplice to help him cut up and burn their bodies is "extremely dangerous" and in need of indefinite psychiatric treatment a Court of Appeal yesterday ruled.
Brothers Vincent (29) and Morgan (20) Costello of Bansha, Co Tipperary, and their friend Damien Monahan (24), of Ennis, were in their apartment in the seaside resort of Scheveningen near The Hague when confronted by Michael Braxhoofden (24) at the end of April, 2000, the Court of Appeal in the Hague was told.
Braxhoofden, who was staying at the flat and had described himself at his original trial as Mr Monahan's best friend, was living in a world of drugs and alcohol, and suspecting he would be killed by the trio decided to brutally murder them, said judge Koning.
The tragic fate of the young Irishmen was sealed when their killer called on his accomplice Ronald van Bommel (21) to assist him, the judge added.
Describing convicted armed robber and cocaine addict Braxhoofden as "most dangerous to society" the three judges ruled that in addition to a custodial sentence of 16 years, he be detained indefinitely in one of the Dutch Justice Ministry's psychiatric clinics.
The killer of the three Irishmen will only be freed when experts are convinced that he will never re-offend again, said a spokeswoman for the Advocate General's office after the verdicts were announced.
The court chamber was packed with Dutch media but no members of the Costello or Monahan families, who had heard traumatic details of the Irishmen's last moments alive at the original trial, were present yesterday.
The chief police investigator in the case, Insp Andre Teiwes, later informed Mrs Nora Monahan and Mrs Margaret Costello of the new court rulings. The appeal Court in the Hague had spent weeks pouring over psychiatric reports on the Dutchmen originally convicted in November 2000.
The higher court in fact lowered Braxhoofden's orginal prison sentence of 18 years by two years. But court officials stressed that the order for him to be detained in a psychiatric clinic meant that he was likely to stay inside for "a very long time to come".