Thalia Driessens gets 21 years in prison for the murder of adoptie mother (inland)
© Belga
The Court of Assisen of Flemish Brabant sentenced Thalia Driessens (37) on Tuesday to 21 years in prison for the parent murder of her adoptive mother Brigitte Vanaudenaeren (68).
Driessens was found guilty of the parent murder of Vanaudenaeren by the Assisenhof on Monday. The woman was found dead in her home in Steenokkerzeel in the night of 11 to 12 July 2023.
According to Thalia Driessens, the victim had insulted her and decorated her prior to the facts. As a result, she would first have worked Vanaudenaeren to the ground in two phases and subsequently strangled her with a scarf.
The jury needed about three hours of deliberation on Tuesday to make a decision. Chairman Veerle Aelbrecht, who subsequently read the judgment, said that the seriousness and seriousness of the facts were taken into account for the punishment, and the violence with which Thalia acted, without having an eye for the irreparable suffering for her mother and her own children.
Traumatic years of life
But the judgment also takes into account the traumatic first years of life of the accused, her father who abandoned her and her mother’s alcohol abuse. EreaDvocaat-General Marcel Verbelen had argued earlier on Tuesday in his requisitoir for 28 years of imprisonment, but there was therefore less in the judgment. « You have been offered a chance, » said chairman Aelbrecht. « Grab that opportunity and stay with alcohol. »
