A 39-year-old man has gone on trial for killing two people at a care centre in Alblasserdam last year.

John S. confessed to killing an employee and teenage patient as well as injuring two others during a shooting spree in May 2022 at a zorgboederij, or care farm, south of Rotterdam.

The man had known psychiatric problems and had previously been a patient at the care farm.

‘I know I’m behind it,’ John S. told the presiding judge on the first day of the hearing at the district court in Dordrecht. He told the court that he had seen images in his head for years of killing himself and other people.

The defendant emailed RTL Boulevard ahead of the killings, confessing to another murder, that of a 60-year-old shoemaker in Vlissingen. John S. told the TV programme he had ‘war in his head’ and had made repeated suicide attempts.

He was arrested shortly after the killings and admitted to the police that he was behind the attacks. His lawyer claims his psychiatric problems should be considered a mitigating factor.

Three days have been allocated for the trial. Victims and relatives will have the opportunity to address the court on Wednesday and the defense will present its case on Friday.