Man with 'painted' face kills children at Belgian nursery

[Gouda]

...and then fled on bike to a supermarket. Delhaize?

***

3 dead, 10 wounded in Belgium day care stabbings

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090123/ap_ ... _stabbings

DENDERMONDE, Belgium – An unidentified man entered a day care center in Belgium and went on a stabbing spree Friday, killing two young children and a female worker and sending 10 others to the hospital, officials said.

Prosecutor Christian Du Four said the man was arrested in a nearby supermarket not long after causing widespread panic during the 10 a.m. attack in this town 20 miles (30 kilometers) northwest of Brussels.


***

Children dead in Belgian nursery knife attack

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europ ... index.html

(CNN) -- Two children and one adult were killed Friday in a stabbing attack at a nursery school in Belgium, officials said.

The attacker entered the day care center in Dendermonde, about 16 miles northwest of Brussels, around 10 a.m. (4 a.m. ET) and began stabbing children and staff, the ministry said.

"The guy just went crazy," local official Theo Janssens said, according to Agence France-Presse news agency.

Local journalist Bart Bekaert told CNN that the attacker's face was painted black and white.

[elfismiles]

Sky News is noting that the crèche was attacked by a knife-wielding man wearing black and white facepaint, "like a joker," who is allegedly extremely thin, with red hair.

For more, see:
FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 2009

Belgian Crèche Attacked By Painted Face Assailant

http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/2009/ ... acked.html

[nomo]

Belgian papers now report "links" to the extreme right organization BBET.

[AhabsOtherLeg]

Belgian papers now report "links" to the extreme right organization BBET.

BBET do sound like a bizarre and Jokerish group... almost more existential than strictly right-wing in their violence.

Flemish TV channel VTM claimed (citing justice sources) that the group was preparing to assassinate Filip Dewinter, an important figure of the far right Vlaams Belang party, in a false flag attack that would have been blamed on the Islamist movement. Taking advantage of the ensuing confusion, the group would then murder Dyab Abou Jahjah, leader of the Arab European League. Belgian justice authories denied these claims.[13]

Blood will have blood, eh?... I've wondered today if it was possible this maniac actually thought his blackface make-up was convincing - that a black or Arab would be blamed for the attack, thus stirring up racial tension (which doesn't require much stirring in most of Northern Europe nowadays).

But then I heard he had red hair, and that his face had been painted white with black eyes. So it was supposed to be theatrical in some way. I suppose the question is whether it was simply his own internal drama being played out - the mental illness explanation - or someone else's?

The Belgian press recalled the "bloody eighties," during which the Brabant massacres were carried out (28 deaths), and the Marxist organization Communist Combatant Cells carried out terrorist attacks (2 deaths).[14] Far right groups such as Westland New Post were suspected of being responsible for the Brabant massacres, although the parliamentary commission could not find any definitive proof.

Brabant was a Gladio operation, wasn't it? Belgium's P2, showing their hand.

And am I the only one watching the BBC coverage who can't hear "The Belgian Government has pledged to investigate child-safety procedures..." without feeling ill?

[AhabsOtherLeg]

Roger Boyes at Times Online has a good opinion piece that deserves to be read in full. He seems to make a lot of the connections we would make here, but cops out at the end with a conclusion that (in my opinion) directly contradicts the rest of the piece.

The Belgian crèche, so savagely invaded today, was called Storyland, Fabeltjesland. The name jars now; since the beginning of civilisation it has been part of the duty of adults to create narratives that explain the outside world to children. Fairy tales tell them about love and jealousy, the divide between rich and poor, about fairness - and about cruelty. Yet no monster from the pen of the Brothers Grimm can prepare a child for the idea that a grown-up might stab babies.

What kind of stories should we be telling our children now?

Not Belgium again, was the first, sad response to the tragedy in Dendermonde. But the truth is that child abuse, infanticide and massacres have become part of the fabric of modern Europe and not just benighted Belgium with its paedophile rings.

Then get this, as his summing up:

children become victims when judicial systems are corrupt, when policemen refuse to listen to the complaints and suspicions of neighbours, when welfare officers do not bother to investigate odd behaviour or ask questions about bruised and frightened children.

After the Dutroux case came to light a Belgian parliamentary report accused the police of “negligence, amateurism and incompetence”. Dutroux, it concluded, had enjoyed “indirect protection”.

It is no good blaming every outrage against children as the act of a mad man. Behind every massacre there is a failure in the system. The very least that has to be done is to bring the welfare and policing systems closer together, to create common databases.

The objection, of course, is that this gives too much discretionary power to the state, moves us uncomfortably close to the world of Big Brother.

The situation has become too serious for the libertarian argument. The internet has opened up too many new opportunities for child abuse networks. We have to put up with some intrusions into our privacy, to protect the weak, to shield the children.

That is the only way that Storyland will get a happy ending.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 576195.ece


What an ass. There's no happy ending here. And does he not realise that the "indirect protection" Dutroux enjoyed came from criminal elements within the State which he wants to strengthen? In effect, he is arguing that we should give up our privacy rights and allow a common welfare and policing database to be built by the same people and institutions who allowed (or encouraged) these things to happen.


"Behind every massacre there is a failure in the system."

More like, behind every massacre there is a system.

Edit: When Googling Dendermonde last night I saw that one result had been removed, and there was the usual Chilling Effects.org page. Anyone know how to get that back?

Also, an update:

Belgium: stab suspect had other day-care addresses
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... AD95TL4S80

Du Four said the suspect wore a bulletproof vest under his clothing and had a knife, an axe and a fake pistol. He said that police also found two other knives near the daycare center where a 9-month old girl, a 6-month old boy and a 54-year-old caregiver were killed.

Du Four said he would not comment on whether the suspect planned other attacks, but said the weapons found in his backpack "point to premeditation."

[AhabsOtherLeg]

...and then fled on bike to a supermarket. Delhaize?

Ah... I wonder.

Slaughters of the Brabant?

*

1983
1.

# Assassination of a driver of Taxi, Mr Constantin Angelou, with Mons, January 12th, 1983 (a death) Attack of a supermarket Delhaize with Genval, February 11th, 1983
# Attack of a Delhaize supermarket to Uccle, February 25th, 1983 (a casualty)
# Attack of a supermarket Colruyt with Hall, March 3rd, 1983, (a death)
# Attack of a textile factory with the Thames, September 10th, 1983, (a death, a casualty)
# Burgling of the Colruyt supermarket to Bubbles, September 17th, 1983, (three dead)
# Attack inn of Three Ducks with Ohain, October 2nd, 1983, (a death)
# Attack of a Delhaize supermarket to Beersel, October 7th, 1983, (a death)
# Attack of a jewelry with Anderlues, December 1st, 1983, (two dead)

*

1985
1.

Attack of a supermarket, a subsidiary company of Delhaize the Lion, with Braine-l' Alleud, on Friday, September 27, 1985, (of the stolen money, three killed people and two wounded people)
# Attack of a supermarket, a subsidiary company of Delhaize the Lion, with Overijse, on Friday, September 27, 1985, (of the stolen money, five killed people and a wounded person)
# Attack of a supermarket, a subsidiary company of Delhaize the Lion, with Alost, on Saturday, November 9, 1985, (of the stolen money, (of the cigarettes would have been carried), eight killed people and several wounded people (eight?))

http://www.speedylook.com/Slaughters_of ... abant.html[/quote]

[Mx32]

I'd been noticing a huge amount of "23"s over the past week

(remember my post ages ago following the torture/ murder of two men in New Cross, London?

" investigation into the deaths of Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez, both 23, "

-Telegraph

"Daniel Sonnex, 23, from Peckham, on July 12, 2008, was charged with murder and perverting the course of justice"

-Wikipedia)


"Sterling slumped to a new 23-year low yesterday, with the pound falling to $1.355." - Indie, Sat 24th = 23 year low on friday.

So when this story broke yesterday I checked for any 23s but couldn't see any - didn't know it (Friday) was the 23rd of Jan until today.

[Mx32]

"Officials said that when he was caught three miles away ‘in a complete trance’, he had an axe, two knives and an imitation firearm on him."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... alarm.html

[Mx32]

Dark Knight got a re-release on Friday, btw.

[Mask]

Le soir wonders if this killing isn't in homage to Batman's Joker and mentions that it happened one day after Heath Ledger's first death anniversary. link

Une tuerie en hommage au Joker de Batman?

Rédaction en ligne
samedi 24 janvier 2009, 23:12

Le lendemain du carnage de Termonde, une hypothèse circule, qui tente d'expliquer l'acte de Kim De Gelder, qui se mure dans le silence, par un hommage au Joker des films de Batman ? Il aurait commis son acte le lendemain du premier anniversaire de la mort d'Heath Ledger, qui jouait le rôle du joker dans le dernier Batman.

Also:

...and then fled on bike to a supermarket. Delhaize?

Ah... I wonder.

Slaughters of the Brabant?

Delhaize is the first supermaket in Belgium in terms of retail outlets (580) followed by Carrefour (550)[source], so as supermarkets go, it's pretty commonplace. Just saying.

[Gouda]

No answers from accused assailant in Belgium
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/25/ ... php?page=1

BRUSSELS: Two days after the stabbing deaths of a 9-month-old girl, a 6-month-old boy and a 54-year-old child care worker, the 20-year-old man charged with the crimes was refusing Sunday to explain the frenzied attack on a day care center that has traumatized this town and shocked the nation.

But here in Belgium, the news media have dubbed the assailant the "Joker killer." Newspaper and television reports have said that the unemployed man under arrest was inspired by the character of the "Joker" in the most recent Batman movie and that he was planning to attack at least one more nursery.

The authorities have identified the accused man only as Kim D., though the media here have named him. The police said he had remained uncommunicative through at least four hours of interrogation.

His thin, pale face - framed by long, black hair - stares out from a variety of Web sites, in some cases juxtaposed with images of the Joker character portrayed by Heath Ledger in the Batman movie released last year.

He had no criminal record, she added, and had no reported psychiatric problems. He has been charged with three counts of murder and 12 counts of attempted murder.

Du Four said the assailant had not been under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

She said he had painted his face white and blackened his eyes before the attack. "Whether that had something to do with the Joker from Batman we have no idea," Du Four said in an interview with De Standaard newspaper, "since, as I said, he refuses to say anything."

...

The Belgian police have declined to comment on the details of the accused man's appearance, but media outlets have pointed out that the crime took place a year and a day after the death of Ledger, who played the Joker in the Batman film "The Dark Knight."

"The Joker story - is it true?" Buyse said Sunday, "Nobody knows. Who knows what was in the mind of a person like that? Nobody can imagine that you could put the knife to a little baby's throat. It's far beyond our imagination."

The police confirmed Friday that Kim D. was wearing a bullet-proof vest and was carrying other weapons when two police officers overpowered him a few kilometers from the scene of the stabbings.

The prosecutor has said that he was also carrying an ax and a fake pistol. The addresses of other nurseries were also reported to have been found on the man after his arrest.
...

His neighbors, meanwhile, described the accused as a "loner."

"No one in the neighborhood knew him well," one neighbor said in an interview with the Belgian broadcaster RTBF. "He lived alone and was eccentric.


(High school photo)

****

The guy is now reported to be suicidal, on a hunger strike, and is still refusing to speak:

Killer now being fed intravenously?
http://www.deredactie.be/cm/de.redactie ... ilentmarch

He is also thought to be responsible for the earlier murder of an elderly lady:

Crèche killer also responsible for murder of elderly woman?
http://www.deredactie.be/cm/de.redactie ... erenmurder

[Mask]

This is anecdotal and may be of no interest but today, Le Soir notes that the killer's name, Gelder, is the anagram of Ledger. link

On relevera aussi, et c'est extrêmement troublant, que le nom du meurtrier « Gelder » est l'anagramme parfait de « Ledger », le nom de l'acteur incarnant le Joker et dont l'annonce de la mort par surdose était intervenue un an jour pour jour avant la tuerie.

[nomo]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 592804.ece

Man accused of Dendermonde nursery stabbing linked to woman's murder

The man accused of stabbing two infants and a child minder to death in a frenzied attack on Friday is now a prime suspect in the recent murder of an elderly woman and may have been planning a similar attack on two other children’s nurseries.

As police continue to piece together the events in the small Flemish town of Dendermonde that left a six-month-old boy, a nine-month-old girl and a 54-year-old woman dead, and a dozen babies and adults suffering from stab wounds, there were claims that this was no isolated incident.

The public prosecutor, Christian Du Four, said: “There are very clear indications that there are links between the events of Dendermonde and the murder of an older woman on January 16.”

According to the prosecutor, the incidents were both committed on a Friday at more or less the same time. The 73-year-old woman had been fatally stabbed in her apartment near Antwerp just one week before last week’s savage attack on the Fairytale Land crèche in Dendermonde around 30 kilometres (19 miles) west of Brussels.

Since theft did not appear to be a motive, police are still searching for a reason for the unprovoked attack against the elderly woman and media reports suggest that there is DNA evidence linking the two crimes.

Kim De Gelder, the 20-year-old suspect in the attack on the Dendermonde crèche, has refused to co-operate with investigators since he was arrested at a nearby supermarket soon after he calmly rode away on his bicycle from the scene of the attack.

Mr De Gelder, unemployed and the oldest of three children from a middle-class family, will appear in court tomorrow charged with three counts of murder and 12 of attempted murder on the basis of identifications by witnesses at the day care centre.

When the attacker tricked his way into the care centre early on Friday morning, some witnesses said that he had painted his face white and eyes black like the deranged Joker character in the latest Batman film. Belgian newspapers, which published photos of the long-haired suspect over the weekend, also pointed out that Gelder was an anagram of Ledger, the actor who played the Joker.

However, Mr Du Four said that some witnesses had stated that the killer had not been wearing make-up. He also suggested that the suspect probably intended to attack other nurseries in the area. “He had a list of three crèches in Dendermonde, including the one where he acted,” he said.

The frenzied attack has shocked Belgium – a country that has only recently come to terms with the horrific crimes of the paedophile and murderer Marc Dutroux. On Sunday, 8,000 mourners marched silently through Dendermonde in solidarity with the victims.

[elfismiles]

Anagram: Gelder = Ledger

Discussions - and broader attention from everyone from the Drudge Report to the English media - regarding the Dendermonde Joker killer - continued on January 26, 2009. There were new speculations of a possible 4th killing, more on the suspect's copycat behavior, and continued interest in the strange links between Heath Ledger's and Kim de Gelder's names.

Investigate further,

http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/2009/ ... edger.html

[Gouda]

From today's Le Soir online (with help from google translation):

***

When he was 18, his parents wanted to inter him, but it did not happen...
A psychiatrist found that internment was not necessary. Kim at that time heard voices in his head..."

(...)

Mr. Haentjens [De Gelder's lawyer] suggested Monday evening that Kim De Gelder implicitly acknowledged to him the facts of Termonde and said that he "understood having done something inhuman." But he was less affirmative Tuesday.

"He can not remember three, four hours in Dendermonde," said Haentjens.

***