A fisherman does not just return from the sea. Not even if he has to appear in court. And Jacob H. (19) could not possibly stay ashore for one hour as a judge for a week. His lawyer stood alone before the judge this Tuesday afternoon.
Jacob H. is suspected of theft with burglary. He would have broken into a warehouse of a Urk fishmonger on October 31, 2020 with friends. The indoor bar was demolished: the toilet bowl, the sink, television, paintings. “It was chaos in that bar,” says the prosecutor. The men were then seen on the street, with mops, a bar stool, a speaker and a Heineken clock in their arms. Boys from the village. On the security images, the shed owner was able to identify who was who.
This resulted in four suspects. They all deny having anything to do with the evening. But the other three men – all in their twenties – are not due to appear in court until April for various reasons.
Their motives are unclear. The public prosecutor suspects that the demolition has something to do with revenge. The men had “posted something” on Instagram about an incident at the Jumbo the day before. A roller shutter had been broken open with a forklift truck.
Jacob H. still lives at home. His father told the police that he was “with his hands in his hair”. “On the weekend things happen that are unacceptable,” he said. “Those guys reinforce each other.” About his alcohol consumption, H. himself declared to the police: “As long as I can’t anymore.”
“I don’t know exactly how groups of friends on Urk are put together,” the judge told Jacob’s lawyer. “But I’ve had hearings from this group of guys before. The names all looked familiar to me.”
After the owner of the shed, two officers also pointed H. to the security images. They recognized him by his clothes, trousers with two red and one white stripe. “Three recognitions,” says the public prosecutor. “There is no discussion whether it is him.” “The next question” is whether there is co-perpetration. “I think so,” she says. There is a substantial community service penalty for breaking and entering a business premises.
But she will “take into account” the previous two convictions of Jacob H.: she demands a community service of 100 hours, to be replaced by 50 days in prison. He just completed community service. H. was convicted this summer of joyriding after driving a stolen forklift to a bar. He didn’t feel like walking, he explained.
And last year he was given community service for pushing an extraordinary investigating officer (boa) into the port of Urk with a friend.
Jacob H. still lives at home. His father is ‘with his hands in his hair’
But H. had nothing to do with that evening in the bar, says his lawyer. “He is linked to this fact solely by clothing.” But the outfit was not really distinctive. The man in the photo was wearing “generic sports pants,” she says. And yes, Jacob H. has a sweater that says ‘132’. But on Urk, at least 25 boys have a similar one: a notorious group of friends. The name, so the story goes, refers to the suspended years in prison that the members together would hang over their heads.
132 has already been passed in court more than once this year. After a GGD test record burned down in Urk in January, the two arsonists told the judge that they had been offered 500 euros from members of 132 (they did not receive the promised 500 euros).
The security images do not show whether Jacob H. was there in the bar of the fish trade, the judge says. Some boys’ faces are visible. Others were recognized by their gait. But only on clothes? That is not enough. “It could also be someone else.” Jacob H. is acquitted.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC in the morning of December 27, 2021
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