Eric Lammers, known to his underworld associates as The Beast, was sentenced to life in 1991 for the murder of two Antwerp jewellers. He was released on probation in 2002 and fled the country in 2007 when he was about to go back to jail for helping a friend bury a dead body.

Lammers remains a suspect in the case of the Brabant Killers, who left 28 people dead after a spree of attacks and supermarket robberies in 1983-1985. He was known to be a member of the extreme-right Westland New Post movement, and took part in shooting exercises in woods where loot from the robberies was later found. Police even found a bulletproof vest known to have been stolen by the gang in Lammers' house. Nevertheless, he was never arrested.

When he fled in 2007, he was under suspicion of having molested his girlfriend's daughter, a charge which still awaits him. He went to Serbia, where he was arrested in July last year after negotiations between the Belgian and Serbian authorities. He was finally returned to Brussels last week, and imprisoned in Vorst prison in Brussels.