Man who stabbed his teacher 101 times held 16 months after murder

Gunter Uwents, a 37-year-old man in Belgium confessed to the murder of his primary school teacher Maria Verlinden in 2020. Uwents said that he killed her because he never got over her 'humiliating' comments from his school days in the 1990's back when he was a child of seven.

Verlinden was murdered in her home near Antwerp in November 2020. The 59-year-old was reportedly stabbed 101 times, according to reports. Her purse, full of cash, lay untouched, indicative of the fact that she was not killed in a violent theft incident.

Her murder had remained unsolved despite repeated Belgian police enquiries and hundreds of DNA samples collected to try and find her killer.

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Sixteen months later, Uwents admitted to a friend that he was the one who killed Verlinden. The friend then proceeded to inform the police. Uwents was arrested on March 13.

The local prosecutors' office told news agency AFP that Uwents had provided 'detailed explanations' for his act, which amounted to a confession. He is alleged to have said he suffered at primary school because of his teacher.

Uwents has provided a DNA sample to be compared with traces found at the murder scene. As a former pupil, he was in any case due to be caught up in the genetic-sampling dragnet.

Uwents was produced before the court on Tuesday and has since been placed in custody under a murder charge.

According to reports of Belgian media, Gunter Uwents is a devout Christian known for helping the homeless.