Ilham Hajbat (27) stabbed to death by her husband in their home on Comeniusstraat

Ilham Hajbat (27) was stabbed five times, in her leg and abdomen, at her home on Comeniusstraat shortly before twenty past ten on the morning of Monday 7 December 2015. The attacker was her husband Abdelmounim E.-O. (29). He called the emergency services himself and, asked who had stabbed her, answered: 'Me, sir, me the devil.' Hajbat had to be winched out of the building by the fire brigade. She was still responsive inside the flat, but died in hospital. The couple were divorcing and the question of who would get custody of their five-year-old and three-year-old children had not yet been settled. The family was known to child protection services and to the police. According to the file E.-O. had been a difficult child: truancy, soft drugs, petty crime. In 2006 a psychiatrist found him to be 'egocentric, opportunistic and short-tempered'. Neighbours described how during outbursts he threw whatever he could get hold of out of the window, down to dining tables and chairs; police would come and take him away for a few days, and months later it would start again. Shortly before the killing he had insulted a police officer. Shortly afterwards he was visited in his cell by a member of staff from the child protection board, who told him he would not be given custody of the children; she was assaulted. His lawyer's suggestion that the victim had attacked him holding two knives was not accepted. E.-O. was sentenced to twelve years in prison.