Jan Caubergh Explained

Jan Caubergh
Birth Name:Jan Caubergh
Birth Date:18 September 1934
Birth Place:Lanaken, Belgium
Death Place:Bruges, Belgium
Conviction:Murder
Sentence:Death
commuted to life imprisonment
Victims:3
Country:Belgium

Jan Caubergh (18 September 1934 – 29 November 2013) was a Belgian serial killer. In 1966, he received 25 years of forced labour for his participation in a robbery in which his gang shot a nurse who was severely maimed and later committed suicide. In 1977 he was released on parole.

On 21 February 1979, he raped his pregnant neighbour, 19-year-old Yvonne Smits, shooting her in the back of the head afterwards. Later he strangled his girlfriend, 24-year-old Rina Van Geldorp and their five-month-old son Nicky. He also wounded a policeman with a Long Rifle, later rigging up his police car in an attempt to injure another two policemen. After a manhunt lasting several days in which he hid on barges on the Albert Canal and a bottle stopper factory in Deurne, he was arrested in a hotel in Athenembuurt, Antwerp.[1] [2] He was given the death sentence, but it was later converted to a life imprisonment.

In 2003 Caubergh stabbed a prison guide with a cake knife during a trip out of the central prison in Leuven. The supervisor survived the attack. In September 2010, Caubergh received another 12 years in prison.[3] He spent more than 45 years of his life in prison, the last 34 and a half of which were uninterrupted. That made him one of the longest-serving detainees in the country.

On 5 November 2013 several reports from the Belgian media announced that Caubergh had died in the penitentiary complex in Bruges.[4] This was denied a few days later by the Belgian Prison System.[5] He eventually died on 29 November 2013. At that time he was the oldest detainee in Belgium.[6] [7]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Murderer has eaten my heart for 34 years. 5 December 2013 . Gazet Van Antwerpen. 5 December 2013. nl-be.
  2. Web site: 77-year-old multiple murderer is back again. June 2010 . Het Nieuwsblad. 2 June 2010. nl-be.
  3. Web site: They will never be released again. 13 May 2011 . De Standaard. 13 May 2011. nl-be.
  4. Web site: Serial killer Jan Caubergh (79) died in Bruges prison. Het Belang van Limburg. 5 November 2013. nl-be.
  5. Web site: Notorious Belgian murderer is still alive. De Telegraaf. 7 November 2013. nl-be.
  6. Web site: Oldest prisoner in the country died. 3 December 2013 . De Standaard. 3 December 2013. nl-be.
  7. Web site: The oldest Belgian serial killer dies in a cell. 3 December 2013 . Het Nieuwsblad. 3 December 2013. nl-be.