CHILDREN AND A NURSE DEAD IN BELGIAN NURSERY
I suppose you all heard the terrible news of what happened in Dendermonde Belgium. Two children and one adult were killed Friday, after a man with a painted face launched a knife attack at a children's daycare center in Dendermonde Belgium. Two other adults and 10 children, who are in critical condtion are treated in a hospital in Dendermonde, 16 miles northwest of Brussels. The attacker who is 20, entered the day care center and began stabbing children and staff. He was arrested an hour and a half afterwards. He was trying to make his escape on a bike and was driving to the next daycare center. The police found a plan and notes and it was his intention to kill 67 people. This a very terrible and we have no words for it. Belgium is shocked. The attacker does not confess, he is not saying a word. Nobody knows his motive, is he mad ? In any case, the pictures on televison were heart-rending when I saw the parents of those little children. Why, why, why ?

Marthe, I hadn't heard of this yet. How terribly sad and awful for those parents. I hope they are able to find out why he did this and convict him of the crimes. I'm sure he needs mental help, but that is no excuse to let him go, is it?

I hadn't heard of this yet either; perhaps they told about it on the news, but I'm sorry to admit that I skipped them this weekend. I hope, too, that they are able to find out why the attacker did what he did and, above all, to convict him. I agree with GG that he very likely needs mental help, but this is no excuse to let him go, at least not until the mental issues he may be found out to suffer from are solved, since he proved to be a danger for society at the moment.

Marthe, No, I hadn't heard this story. What a tragedy. He is a very sick person. How very sad. I don't know what to say. It is heart-numbing. Thank you for sharing.

Yes this is very sad. I thought you all knew because the press from all over the world was here in Belgium. It seems that the foreign press takes Belgium for a land of child-murderers. ( The times, the Independant, Telegraph, Le Figaro) You can also read on CNN. The Telegraph sees him like the Joker from the Batman-movie : Joker' knifeman kills children and worker in Belgian creche. Frightful.

Hello Marthe, I hadn't heard this news item either. How awful for all concerned. I certainly hope they get some kind of answers as to why all this was done. That young man needs help and incarceration both.........how dreadful.........

According to his lawyer, the boy has no motive. He does not know why he has done this terrible murder. And another thing. On January the 16th, a woman of 72 was killed in her house, and also with a knife, in a village about 25 km from the house of the boy. He is accused from this murder cause it seems that they have found his DNA on the place of the murder.

I did see this terrible tragedy on the news Marthe. It brought back memories of the Dunblane Massacre in Scotland in 1996, when 16 children and an adult were shot dead at a primary school. The killer, Thomas Hamilton then shot himself, so the true reason was never really established. I truly hope this disturbed young man can eventually offer some answers for those poor families in Belgium.

Frances the boy is 20 years old. Stevie, on the news they also remembered the Dunblane Massacre in Scotland in 1996 and the killer who shot himself. That is the normal profile of such a killer. He kills himself. But this Belgian killer did not do it. In fact he protected himself because he wore a bullet-proof vest. According to the last news, he had a severe depression at the age of 15 which led to an attempt by his parents to let him collocate, because the boy heard voices and his state of mind was very bad. But the psychiatrist concluded that when a forst recording was not necessary. According to the councel, the question arises whether the facts would have happened if he had been included in the hospital. The boy knows nothing more of those three hours in Dendermonde. There are indications that he has a warp. Since he went lo live alone in October, he had no friends or girlfriends. He had almost no contact with his family. His parents are totaly disabled. But why did they let him live alone, knowing that he was not normal behavior ? That is no consolation or answer for the parents who have lost their little baby. This is so sad. Imagine that it is your child.

I agree that even knowing the true reason why this happened won't help much in giving peace to parents whose child was killed. I guess that right now they are only hoping that the murderer is convicted and sent to jail or a mental home so that other families won't have to suffer what they are suffering because of that same person.

I did not say that knowing the reason your child has been killed is any consolation for losing them. Of course, there is no consolation for losing a child, whatever the circumstances. But I do know, from working with parents at the end of their child's life, that having a clear picture of the sequence of events, can help them deal with their grief. Often, parents return to PICU to talk through their child's final hours with staff, as if the need to log each detail helps them cope. Punishment can also feel quite hollow, when a crime - however dreadful - has been committed by someone with severe mental health problems, especially when (as it appears from your description, Marthe) that they have never been properly addressed.

Marte, I did hear about this news. I thought of you right away. I am so sorry about this terrible tragedy. GinaP