Junior Pashi Kabunda (born 1991), known as The Monster of Brussels, is a

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criminal and

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. After participating in the 2006 robbery-murder of

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i pianist Benjamin Rawitz-Castel, he went on to murder his daughter and her great-grandmother three years later. For his latter crimes, he was sentenced to

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life impr ...

plus 25 years.

Early life

Little is known about Kabunda's childhood. Born in the capital to

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parents in 1991, he was described as an unhappy boy who often clashed with those closest to him. As an adolescent, he joined a criminal gang, as well as dealing and using drugs in the area. On 29 August 2006, together with 22-year-old Laurent Oniemba, the two men were walking around Brussels in the middle of the night when they chanced upon Benjamin Rawitz-Castel, who was returning from a concert in

Enghien Enghien (; ; ; ) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. On 1January 2006, Enghien had a total population of 11,980. The total area is , which gives a population density of 295 inhabitants per km2. ...

, Hainaut. When they noticed that he was entering his

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, Oniemba and Kabunda attacked him, beating Rawitz-Castel into unconsciousness and dragging his body to a nearby basement. When he temporarily came back to his senses, the elderly man asked what he had done, before being beaten again and succumbing to his injuries. After the deed was done, the two killers stole his car and sped off. In March 2008, both were arrested for manslaughter, but as Kabunda was underage at the time, he was sent off to a youth facility instead of facing charges. In September 2009, Kabunda was allowed to leave the facility, to visit his girlfriend Céline's family, which resided in

Woluwe-Saint-Lambert Woluwe-Saint-Lambert ( French, ) or Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe ( Dutch, ) is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. In common with all of Brussels' municipalities, it is legally bilingual (French–Dutch). In French, ...

. On 20 September, in a state of anger over doubts that he wasn't the father of Céline's child, Kabunda proceeded to rape and murder 79-year-old Marcelle Deconinck, Céline's grandmother, before proceeding to beat 18-month-old Anaïs to death as well. In addition, he attempted to strangle Céline, leaving her for dead. Not long after, Kabunda was arrested and charged with both murders.

Arrest, trial and imprisonment

While imprisoned and awaiting trial for the familicides, guards from the

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Prison discovered a

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in Kabunda's cell. Taking into account that he had allegedly told another prisoner of planning an escape, additional security measures were taken to prevent him from doing so. On 20 December 2010, the Brussels court of assizes found him guilty of double murder, murder and attempted homicide, giving Kabunda a life imprisonment sentence plus 25 years. This decision was later appealed by one of his lawyers, Yannick De Vlaeminck, citing procedural errors, but the appeal was denied.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kabunda, Junior 1991 births 21st-century Belgian criminals Belgian people convicted of murder Belgian people of Democratic Republic of the Congo descent Belgian serial killers Criminals from Brussels Filicides Living people People convicted of attempted murder People convicted of murder by Belgium Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Belgium

Early life

Arrest, trial and imprisonment

See also

References