Judges at Noord Nederland court have sentenced Richard K to life in prison for the murder of two people in Weiteveen on January 16, 2024.

K had admitted to killing 44-year-old Ineke and her 38-year-old husband, Sam, a year after the couple from Velsen-Zuid bought a property from him.

Tensions between K and the couple escalated into increasingly violent conflicts after they accused him of concealing defects in the house. They demanded €100,000 in compensation for repairs, but K was only willing to pay €6,000.

On January 16, K shot Ineke in the village of Weiteveen, near the German border in Drenthe, before entering the house and stabbing Sam multiple times in his bedroom, in front of the couple’s 12-year-old son.

He then posted a video on Facebook admitting to the killings, claiming he had acted to protect his family.

An internal police evaluation of the case published in January said officers were  negligent for not following up as many as 80 reports made by a variety of people about his behaviour.

These ranged from checking the killer’s gun licence, to complaints about stalking, threats and intimidation. Many of the reports were not linked or were not taken seriously, the evaluation said.

At the moment life prisoners in the Netherlands become eligible for parole after 25 years, when they can take their case to a special panel that assesses their behaviour and development in prison, the risk of re-offending and the impact their release could have on victims and their relatives.