A truck driver has been sentenced to nine years in psychiatric prison for killing a motorcycle police officer in 2021.

Willem M, who will also be banned from driving for 10 years following the completion of his sentence, hit 47-year-old motorcycle policeman Arno de Korte on the Waalhavenweg in Rotterdam after ignoring a stop sign.

De Korte was dragged by the truck for hundreds of metres, resulting in his death shortly after. The driver did not stop and continued to deliver his load. He then went home where he was arrested.

M was sentenced to 12 years in psychiatric prison in 2022 but appealed, claiming he had suffered from psychological problems at the time which had caused him to make the wrong decision.

But although his sentence was reduced to nine years because of his mental state, the judge found M had deliberately hit the motorcycle officer. “He could have avoided the crash by breaking or moving lane. And he did nothing to help the victim,” the judge said.

M had been involved in two serious accidents before. In 2015 he also hit a motorcycle officer who lost his arm as a result. In 2020 he hit and killed a 79-year-old woman.