The facts took place on August 4, 2020 in Demesmaeker’s apartment in the Meuleschettestraat in Aalst. Around 8.30 am, the man, who had already had a relationship with Uyttersprot for three months, reported to the local police. He said he had smashed his girlfriend’s head with a hammer and handed his keys to the police, who found the politician’s lifeless body in his apartment. The autopsy revealed that she died of severe brain trauma caused by six blows.
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Demesmaeker stated that he had not planned the facts. He stated that he was struggling with depression, had financial problems, and that he had an extra hard time during the corona period. He had been together with Uyttersprot, whom he knew from carnival Aalst four years earlier, since May 11, and they walked a lot together during the pandemic. According to Demesmaeker, Uyttersprot wanted to go public with him, but attached conditions to this because of her political position. According to her, he had to get better quickly and that would have caused conflicts.
In his first interrogation, he stated that Uyttersprot would break off the relationship if she did not see an improvement, and that he felt pressured. She said she wanted him to take his prescribed pills for depression, but he refused for fear of side effects. The day before the facts, he said he took one pill of an antidepressant prescribed by his psychiatrist for the first time. When Uyttersprot came to him that evening, they had a fight, but then they had sex and went to sleep.
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Jurgen Demesmaeker states that he was awakened by the alarm of Uyttersprot’s mobile phone around 8 am the next morning, but that she turned off the alarm clock and continued to sleep. He says he was afraid that his girlfriend would press him further, so he went to the storage room and took the claw hammer from his equipment case, hitting her on the head six times with it.
According to the court psychiatrists, Demesmaeker is responsible. In October last year, the indictment chamber in Ghent referred him to the court of assizes of the province of East Flanders.
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