Belgian prosecutors have asked for an eight-year sentence for a Romanian man who is on trial on suspicion that he broke into a house, robbed an elderly woman of 50,000 euros and later fled to Britain.
Prosecutors in Halle-Vilvoorde said the man committed the robbery with an accomplice in the town of Grimbergen, just north of Brussels, in 2019, Adevarul reported on Tuesday.
It took Belgian police two years to identify the suspect and his accomplice. They found his saliva on a carrot he’d eaten at the scene of the crime.
The elderly victim had left her home to go shopping in the morning of the attack. When she returned home she was attacked by two masked robbers,
They threatened her with a knife and made her give them valuables and money hidden in the house. They then forced her to open the safe where she kept her jewellery.
Investigators said they stole 50,000 euros, tied the woman to the bed and drove off in her car. The car was found abandoned on the town.
The woman, however, told police that one of the men had spent the night in her home. Police said the man had slept in the storage room. Police found bits of carrot that he had eaten and they took DNA from the saliva.
The sample was entered in national database and widened their search to the UK.
Investigators identified a suspect in Belgium who was known by his alias, and had already been convicted to 40 months in prison in Britain.
Prosecutors at Halle-Vilvoorde, northwest of Brussels, on Monday called for an eight-year prison sentence.
The court will announce its verdict on November 8.
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