During the month-long trial, De Gelder never denied that he entered the crèche armed with a knife and an axe, striking out at anyone within reach. One week earlier, De Gelder had murdered an elderly woman in her home in Vrasene in order, he said, to still the voices in his head urging him to kill.

The main question facing the jury was whether, as maintained by the defence, De Gelder was insane at the time of the events, which would have meant he would be sentenced to a mental institution instead of prison. During the four years since the attacks and in court in Ghent, De Gelder has behaved erratically, and two psychologists argued he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.

All five psychiatrists appointed by the prosecution, however, said that, while De Gelder clearly suffered from a serious personality disorder, he was not at any point unaware of the seriousness and of the consequences of what he was doing.

The jury agreed. In their statement, they expressed the opinion that no-one who was not fully in possession of his faculties could have carried out the meticulous planning involved in the two deadly attacks.

After being sentenced, De Gelder expressed his first words of regret in the entire case. “If this is now the last time I’ll be allowed to speak, then I would like to offer my apologies for everything I have done to the victims. And my apologies for the problems I have caused for society,” he said. De Gelder’s lawyer has advised him not to seek an appeal.

Outside the courtroom, victims injured in the crèche and relatives of the dead described themselves as “relieved” and released white balloons into the air in memory of those killed.