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Add as a favourite source on Google Add DutchNews as a favourite source on GoogleA man who held three prison staff hostage at knifepoint for several hours has been given a further suspended sentence of a year.

Corné H. seized and handcuffed his victims for several hours on December 5 last year at the jail in Vught after threatening them and five other colleagues with kitchen knives.

The 30-year-old had served a nine-month term for holding four staff at a bar in Ede, Gelderland, against their will in March the previous year.

At the time of the incident he was being detained in Vught’s psychiatric unit waiting to be given a place in a clinic under the Dutch compulsory treatment system (tbs).

The sentence was suspended to allow H. to continue his treatment, which began in June, meaning he will only have to go back to prison if he commits another offence.

The court in Den Bosch heard that H. suffered as a result of conditions including PTSS, schizophrenia and autism, which influenced his behaviour. A psychiatric assessment also said he had “anti-social and borderline personality traits”.

The judge said his victims feared for their lives and the incident “must have been dreadful for them”, but accepted H. had diminished responsibility and imposed a sentence that met the prosecution service’s demands.

At the earlier trial, H. was cleared of taking the bar staff in Ede hostage but convicted of depriving them of their liberty and threatening them.

Police sealed off the venue after he went in at closing time with guns and explosives and threatened to blow up the building, leading to a stand-off lasting more than eight hours.

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