Another Facebook Murder?!: Dutch Boy Confesses To Killing Teenage Girl Over Comments

A Life Cut Short: Joyce Hau

In what has been dubbed the, well, Facebook Murder, a 15-year-old Dutch boy has been sentenced to a year in detention after confessing to killing a teenage girl over comments posted on Facebook. The boy, known simply as Jinhua K., was 14 when he murdered the teenage girl, Joyce Hau, in her home in Arnhem, Netherlands last January. The sentence, the harshest available for a minor, was handed down on Monday in Arnhem District Court. In addition to the detention, the boy must also undergo psychiatric treatment at a juvenile centre for three years.


According to court documents, the boy also attempted to kill the victim’s father. The court heard that Hau had a falling out with her best friend, Polly, over comments Hau had posted on Facebook. Polly and her boyfriend, Wesley, reportedly gave Jinhua a note with the victim’s address, letting him know when Hau would be home. Radio Netherlands reports that the couple offered Jinhua money and a promise to pay for drinks when going out with him for doing the killing. Jinhua did not know the victim.

The prosecution said the couple spent weeks planning the murder, pressuring the boy to kill Hau and threatening they would kill him if he didn’t do the deed. The trial for the girl, 16, and her boyfriend, 17, is set to start this week.

Joyce Hau’s father, Chun Nam Hau, wrote a letter to the court: “I notice that children are becoming more and more violent. They’re not respectful. They don’t think about others. I hope that you, as judge, politicians, parents and our entire society, will do something to stop this.”

Outside the courthouse, he said was “not happy” with the sentence but understood that the law would not allow for a harsher penalty: “We were powerless and so were the authorities.”