A devout Christian has admitted to stabbing his former teacher more than 100 times after carrying a 30-year grudge over how she humiliated him in class, according to Belgian prosecutors.
Gunter Uwents, 37, is alleged to have confessed to the murder of Maria Verlinden on Thursday after being told police were set to DNA test her ex-pupils.
He told Belgian investigators he still hadn’t got over comments she made about him when he was a seven-year-old schoolchild.
“Introverted” Uwents felt excluded because she never called him to answer when he put his hand up, according to local newspaper Het Nieuwsblad.
According to his version of events after years of seeing psychiatrists he moved away from the family home and even became a teacher himself.
But the change did not stop his “flashbacks” so he decided to confront Ms Verlinden at home over how she had treated him.
He told prosecutors when he travelled to her house in Herentals, near Antwerp, he was unarmed and did not intend to kill.
But he claims that he lost his temper when she laughed at his situation and dismissed him as “a dork”, according to media reports.
Uwents then chased her into the hallway, where she lost her glasses, before stabbing her 101 times in the kitchen. The knife hasn’t been found.
Officers knew the attack was not a robbery because her purse was untouched and began to suspect it may have something to do with her work.
Uwents later admitted his crime to a friend who went to the police. They arrested him on Sunday.
Ms Verlinden’s sister Lut Verlinden, 62, who taught Uwents at the same school, said everyone was “perplexed” by his actions.
She said: “Gunter was always a quiet, introverted boy. There was nothing more to say about him. His parents are also very good Catholic people.”
Uwents, who also worked as a civil servant at Belgium’s finance ministry, volunteered helping out the homeless in his spare time.
He appeared before a judge on Tuesday and has been remanded in custody on a murder charge.
A board of psychiatrists has been appointed to examine him before his next court appearance on Friday.
