Serial killer Renaud Hardy must pay actress Veerle Eyckermans more than 200,000 euros in damages (Mechelen)

Mechelen –

The Mechelen serial killer Renaud Hardy must pay Veerle Eyckermans, the actress who escaped a murder attempt, compensation of 208,273.62 euros. The court in Antwerp decided this on Monday.

On March 7, 2018, the assize court in Tongeren sentenced Renaud Hardy to life in prison. Hardy was found guilty of two murders of Maria Walschaerts (82) from Mechelen in 2014 and Linda Doms (52) from Hofstade in 2015, two rapes with torture and two murder attempts.

Actress Veerle Eyckermans, known for series such as Kulderzipken Postbus X or Sara, survived an attack by Hardy in the garden of her home in Hofstade in 2015. She could crawl under a tree so that the blows were broken by the branches. Hardy fled when her neighbor Eyckermans came to help.

Posttraumatic stress disorder

The facts obviously hit the actress hard, who also testified at the assize trial. “I haven’t been able to work for a year and a half. I also did not dare to take on television work anymore, because I had the feeling that he could still watch me from prison,” Eyckermans told our sister newspaper Gazet van Antwerpen in an interview five years ago.

In addition to life imprisonment, Hardy was also sentenced in 2018 to pay damages to all civil parties. In order to correctly estimate the damage, a court expert was appointed to investigate Eyckermans, among other things. The expert’s report shows that a full-fledged career as an actress has become impossible for Eyckermans as a result of post-traumatic stress disorder.

The criminal court in Antwerp ruled in the case on Monday and sentenced Hardy to pay 208,273.62 euros to Veerle Eyckermans.

(sare, jtp)