The man who sexually abused and murdered a nine-year-old boy in Limburg province over two years ago has been jailed for 25 years to be followed by psychiatric treatment.

Donny M was found guilty of abusing and killing Gino, the possession and distribution of child pornography and assaulting a 17-year-old youth in 2019 by a court in Maastricht.

Gino’s murder was premeditated, the court said, pointing to M’s online research for “suffocation using cushions”. He had also acted in a controlled and organised way in the hours leading up to that moment, the court said.

Gino disappeared on June 1, 2022 in Kerkrade while playing outside. Three days later M directed police to his body, which had been dumped in Geleen, close to his home.

M admitted abducting Gino during last month’s court hearing. “I told him I would take him home,” M said. “Then he picked up his scooter and we walked to my car.”

M, the court said, “was guilty of extremely serious offences which had made the last hours of Gino’s life a living hell”.  M was also ordered to pay the boy’s biological father and two sisters compensation of €50,000.

According to the Pieter Baan Centre which carried out a psychiatric on M, he has a raft of mental problems and is a pedophile.