A 17-year-old from Antwerp has confessed to killing David Polfliet (42), after he and two other teenagers lured him to a park using the gay daying app Grindr.
Polfliet was stabbed to death in the neighbourhood park Hof ter Welle in Beveren in March last year. The three teenagers were arrested in connection with the murder not long after.
One of the 17-year-old suspects admitted that he killed Polfliet by stabbing him in the upper leg with a knife at least once, hitting a vital vein in the process, causing the victim to bleed to death.
The teenagers had lured the gay man there with the intention of mugging him and “teaching him a lesson,” something that friends of the three suspects had already done at least twice before.
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According to the suspect’s statements, it was never his intention to kill the victim: by threatening him with the weapon he wanted to 'only frighten him a little' and by stabbing him in the upper leg he wanted to 'just not kill him.’
It is not yet clear whether this suspect is also responsible for the second stab wound that was found on the victim.
Changing his story multiple times
Shortly after his arrest, the teenager had stated that he 'didn't really know' whether he had stabbed the victim, only to claim afterwards that he had not stabbed him at all. His recent confession now brings more clarity to the case.
A second suspect, a 17-year old boy from Verrebroek in Antwerp, was also carrying a knife at the time of the events, but denies having stabbed the victim with it.
A 16-year-old boy from Kieldrecht, the third suspect, was armed with a pellet gun during the robbery, which after being noticed by the victim resulted in the skirmish in which the murder took place. This suspect briefly escaped from the juvenile detention centre where he was being held before being captured again.
The juvenile court is considering the prosecutor's request to try all three of the young men involved in the murder as adults.
