The 14-year-old boy who raped and murdered his schoolmate Romy this summer has been sentenced to one year’s youth detention followed by a period in a youth psychiatric unit by judges in Utrecht.

This is the toughest option open to the courts in the case of an offender under the age of 16. After seven years in a youth psychiatric clinic, the sentence can be extended into an adult facility.

Romy was found dead in a nature reserve in Achterveld on June 2 after disappearing on her way home from school. The boy was arrested two days later. Both teenagers were at a special school in nearby Barneveld.

The boy has admitted raping and strangling Romy and pushing her body into a ditch.

The court described the boy as ‘a small child in an adult’s body’ and said had ‘extremely worrying’ complex problems. ‘He will continue to need his parent’s support,’ Telegraaf journalist Saskia Belleman quoted the judges as saying.

Meanwhile, the 17-year-old boy suspected of murdering 14-year-old Savannah Dekker this summer has been remanded in custody until January 26.