Belgian Farmer’s Assize Trial Opens in Daughters’ Killing
The assize trial of Chris Vanhaverbeke, a 48-year-old potato farmer from Waardamme in West Flanders, opened at the court of assizes in Bruges on 24 September 2026, with the reading of the indictment consuming the morning session. Vanhaverbeke is charged with the premeditated murder of his two young daughters, Maud (8) and Ona (5), in November 2022, and with the attempted murder of his ex-wife. He faces a possible life sentence.
According to VRT NWS, which is covering the proceedings via a live blog, Vanhaverbeke appeared visibly moved during the passage describing how his daughters were killed, staring at the ground as the prosecutor set out the facts, witness interviews, and investigative acts. Relatives of the girls in the courtroom, including their mother and grandparents, were also emotional.
Context: A Break-Up and Escalating Threat
According to the VRT NWS background account of the case, the relationship between Vanhaverbeke and his then-wife had deteriorated for some time. In August 2022 the farmer struck her during an argument, prompting her to leave with Maud and Ona and file for divorce. In the months that followed, he tried to win her back — first with pleas, then with increasingly threatening language — and reportedly told her he would make sure she was never happy again.
His ex-wife moved into an apartment but continued to run a holiday-rental property next to the farm where Vanhaverbeke still lived.
The Events of 16 November 2022
On the afternoon of 16 November 2022, Vanhaverbeke was meant to collect his daughters from school and return them to their mother at 6 p.m. Instead, the prosecution says, he tied their hands behind their backs and suffocated them upon returning home from school. VRT NWS has said it will not describe the manner of the girls’ deaths in detail given the gravity of the facts.
Later that afternoon he drove around the region, chatting with acquaintances and calling his ex-wife’s cousin — another farmer — to discuss potato prices. The acquaintances later said they noticed nothing unusual. At 6 p.m. he telephoned his ex-wife to say he would harm himself and take the children with him; in reality, the girls had already been dead for hours.
When police searched the property, they found Maud dead in her bed and Ona dead in a bed in the holiday-rental unit. Investigators also determined that electrical cables to a fuse box in the rental unit had been deliberately loosened. Prosecutors allege Vanhaverbeke intended his ex-wife to be electrocuted had she touched the wires while searching for the lights in the dark — a charge he denies, saying he cut the power only to hinder the search for the girls.
Vanhaverbeke’s van was spotted on ANPR cameras around 9:30 p.m. on the A10 motorway near Ostend. After a chase in which he nearly struck police vehicles and officers, he left the road and crashed into a lamppost, where he was arrested.
The Lawyers’ Opening Positions
Speaking to VRT NWS before the trial began, defence lawyer Kris Vincke said his client expected a fair hearing and raised concerns about pretrial publicity. “So much has already been said and written about this case in the media. If the jurors have already seen and read all of that, his trial has already been conducted,” Vincke said, adding that Vanhaverbeke was “very nervous and stressed” and that the proceedings would be difficult for “someone who is not socially or communicatively strong.”
Kristiaan Vandenbussche, the lawyer for the ex-wife, told the broadcaster that his client wanted justice and peace. “We don’t need apologies or expressions of regret. A mother who loses her children and is herself the victim of an attempted murder — that is about the worst thing you can experience,” he said. Vandenbussche argued the motive was revenge. “She wanted to leave him, and Vanhaverbeke blamed his father-in-law for the break-up.” He added that his client continues to deny the attempted murder, and that the farmer initially claimed the killings happened on impulse before it emerged he had been planning them longer.
The trial opened after an assize jury was assembled on Monday, 21 September, to decide whether Vanhaverbeke killed his daughters intentionally and with premeditation, and whether he intended to kill his ex-wife.
From a Cell, an Alleged Murder Plot
Even from prison, the case has continued to develop. Investigators say Vanhaverbeke approached two fellow inmates to find a hitman to kill his ex-wife, providing her address and a photograph and offering €12,000, according to a VRT NWS report on the allegations. He has already been convicted of stalking and partner violence against her. Earlier in 2026 she received a stalking alarm — a special emergency button she can activate if she feels unsafe. Her lawyer has said she has lived in constant fear for years.
Criminologist Anne Groenen, who has researched stalking and partner violence for 25 years, told VRT NWS that the psychological damage in such cases is enormous. “The brain of such a victim lives in a permanent state of alarm that something might happen. The body shows chronic stress, and the victim can no longer feel safe,” she said, noting that extreme cases like this are rare but that professionals must understand the impact to intervene earlier.
What’s Next
Vanhaverbeke was expected to be questioned later on the first day of the trial. The case has cast a heavy shadow over the rural municipalities of Waardamme and Ruddervoorde, where the family lived; the mayor of Oostkamp testified on how the community is trying to come to terms with the killings. Whether the jury accepts the prosecution’s account of premeditation and intent — on both the murders and the alleged attempt on the ex-wife’s life — will determine a possible life sentence as the trial unfolds.