A 20-year-old man from Glimmen, Groningen, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for killing his 23-year-old girlfriend and her 6-year-old daughter from a previous relationship in Haren last year, NOS reports.

In October last year the man strangled his girlfriend with a telephone cord and then cut her throat. He then suffocated the 6-year-old girl with a piece of clothing.

The man already confessed to committing these acts. According to him, he acted on an impulse after his girlfriend said she wanted to end the relationship. After the murders, he tried to commit suicide and then asked a friend to call the police. Officers found him in the house in Haren with the 1-year-old daughter he had with his girlfriend. The baby was unharmed.

The Public Prosecutor believed that the death of the woman was premeditated, and charged the man with murder. The man faced a manslaughter charge for killing the girl. He killed the girl when she found her mother dead in the bathroom, it was not a planned act, according to the Prosecutor. The Public Prosecutor demanded 25 years in prison against the man.

But the court ruled that both woman and child were killed in the spur of the moment. The man was only convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Both the perpetrator and the victims came from Eritrea. They were living in the Netherlands on temporary residence permits and met each other in the asylum center in Oude Pekela.