The Court of Appeals in the city of Den Bosch, the Netherlands, released its verdict after the prosecution had filed an appeal in the case of Nicky Verstappen’s death.
The lower court had sentenced Josh Brech to 12.5 years after finding him guilty of kidnapping resulting in death and the sexual abuse of Nicky Verstappen (11) in 1998.
The Court of Appeals agreed with the prosecution that there were grounds to appeal the initial 12.5 year prison sentence. The state had asked for a 20-year sentence for Josh Brech.
The Court of Appeals sentenced Brech to 16 years. They based this on the evidence as presented in the lower court.
The difference with the lower court is that the Court of Appeals did find Brech guilty of manslaughter. The Appeals Court said that “by grabbing Verstappen and covering his mouth while abusing him, Brech accepted the possibility the boy could die.”
Brech has denied all charges.
The Case
On Aug 10, 1998 Nicky Verstappen (March 13, 1987 – Aug 10, 1998) disappeared from a summer camp that was organized by local youth groups at Brunssummerheide, Limburg, the Netherlands.
The night before he went missing, all camp activities had ended at 10pm. The kids went back to their tents and it was lights out. Nicky (11) was last seen around the tent that he shared with other kids at 5am. Three hours later he was gone.
DNA
On Aug 22, 2018 Dutch Police announced a breakthrough: they found DNA on Nicky’s clothes. With familial DNA searches they narrowed down the group of suspects and zoomed in on Jos Brech. He officially became the suspect.
A national and international APB were issued as Brech went missing. His family told police that Brech went hiking in the Vosges, France. He was arrested Aug 26, 2018 in Northern Spain. Madrid High Court judges decided Aug 27, 2018 to extradite Brech (55) to the Netherlands.
On Dec 12, 2018, an initial hearing took place. Brech denied having abused, kidnapped, and killed Nicky Verstappen. On Nov 20, 2020 Brech was sentenced to 12.5 years for sexual abuse causing Verstappen’s death, his abduction, and possession of child pornography with deductions for time served since arrest. The sentence is lower than requested by the prosecution. However, the court felt hindered by not having concrete evidence of cause/exact time of death.
Rest in peace, Nicky Verstappen.