Woman beat and mocked husband, forced to clean faeces of 60 dogs, locked him in kennel: Belgian court hears horrifying details of abuse
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Woman beat and mocked husband, forced to clean faeces of 60 dogs, locked him in kennel: Belgian court hears horrifying details of abuse")
Domestic violence representative image Photograph: (Unsplash)
A woman in Belgium faces jail for torturing her husband for over a year. She beat him, locked him in a dark cellar and a kennel, asked him to clean the faeces of 60 dogs, denied him food and mocked him when he was in pain. Even her lawyer has no sympathy for the woman.
A Belgian woman tortured her husband for a year, locking him up in a dog kennel and making him clean after 60 chihuahuas, according to details shared during a court hearing. The man was forced to live in filthy conditions and clean dog faeces. Anna VDV, 47, got married in 2024 and later started regularly beating her husband. She appeared in the dock at Turnhout courthouse on Wednesday and cried as prosecutors told the court the horrifying things she did. They shared pictures of the man, who went from being "a healthy partner at the beginning of the relationship to a burned skeleton". His ordeal only ended after he managed to escape on March 18 and asked his neighbours for help.
Anna told everyone her husband was depressed and harmed himself
De Telegraaf reported that he was covered with injuries and hypothermic, leading the neighbours to inform the police. Anna tried to take control of the situation by climbing into the ambulance and telling the paramedics that her husband was depressed and had harmed himself. They noticed him tensing up in her presence and asked her to leave. The man was taken to the hospital and told them in the ambulance that he had been beaten for a month. He later revealed that the torture had gone on for a year, as his wife beat him with fists and objects until he collapsed.
Anna locked him in a dark room and a dog kennel
The court was told that their house had sixty chihuahuas and the man was forced to clean them and the premises with caustic chemicals barefoot. Anna installed cameras and kept a constant watch on him. If she saw him stop working, she would shout at him remotely. She locked her husband in a garden shed, a kennel and a dark cellar regularly, denying him food or water. When two of the dogs died, she blamed him and poured boiling water on him. This happened two weeks before he escaped. When neighbours saw his injuries, she told them he was prone to self-harm. However, the police found photos of the man in a deplorable state on Anna's phone. In one video, she was seen laughing at him as he tried to put on clothes.
Anna's lawyer calls it ‘the least sympathetic case’
Trending Stories
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
)
)
)
)
)
)
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
)
)
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
)
The prosecutors want Anna to be jailed for at least eight years, and the victim's lawyer is seeking €10,000 ($11,650) in provisional damages. Even Anna's lawyer, Romy Geysen, can't ignore the evidence and her actions, calling it "the least sympathetic case of my entire career". Anna blamed what she did on financial problems and too many dogs. Geysen says she realises what she did was wrong, and is asking not to impose a lengthy jail term.
