They went back to the oaks, relaxed, unable to keep quiet about this successful robbery they’d just carried out, they told the other lads in their gang, including Pascal’s friend Remco and Thomas, Arno’s older brother. They had no thought for the unconscious old man. He was just a living cash machine and they’d made a withdrawal.***
Chris de Stoop, a writer-journalist tells us of the tragic death of his uncle, Daniel, who at eighty four years old and living alone on his run down farm on the Belgian-French border is beaten to death and robbed at his home and is later wholly burnt when his farmhouse is set on fire.
In the Belgian judicial system De Stoop is called upon to represent the family at the trial giving him access to the full investigation:
I speak briefly with the prosecuting attorney…..he then explains to me what is expected of the “civil party”: they must testify and interrogate the accused, they are expected to give comments, to present a plea and to answer questions from the defence attorneys. I am apprehensive when he tells me that I will fulfill the roughly the same role as him, but that he represents the people, and I the family.”***
With access to all of this information he tells us of the events of the week of the death of Daniel, who lived alone on his farm, and who kept himself to himself, who had taken care of his elderly parents until their death and of his younger epileptic brother until his death. Daniel was a character in the town he lived near, coming in once a week to shop, he was then further isolated when his tractor which he used to drive into town was confiscated by the police because he had no road insurance or driving license. He was known as “the hermit” or “filthy”.
The book tells of the Belgian teenagers Arno and Pascal who go to his farm and beat him with a plank of wood in his farm yard before robbing him and of the French teenagers Ahmed and Rachid that decided there must be more money on the farm and go there later on the same night, finding him this time on the floor in his farm house Rachid beats him severely about the head before searching then house and then tipping the heavy stove on top of him and leaving him with the lights on.
For a whole week with his cows braying and his lights on night and day nobody notices anything until one week later worrying about being caught the youths go back, cover him in petrol and set fire to him and his farm.
De Stoop examines the kids’ motivations, the guilt of the town that knew of the risks of these delinquents and chose to do nothing, but the essence of the book is to give a face to uncle Daniel.
Investigate journalism, not really a choice for the “Roman de Rochefort”
First published in Dutch by De Bezige Bij in 2020 as ‘Het Boek Daniel’
Translated into French by Anne Laure Vignaux and published as ‘Le Livre de Daniel’ by Éditeur Globe in 2023
*** my translation
The quotes as read in French before translation
Ils sont retournés aux chaînes, détendus, incapables de cacher le coup qu’ils venaient de réussir. Ils en ont parlé aux autres garçons de la bande, dont Remco, un copain de Pascal et Thomas, le frère aîné d’Arno. Ils ne pensaient plus au vieil homme assommé. Ce n’était qu’un distributeur vivant où ils avaient retiré de l’argent.
Après l’audience, je parle brièvement avec le procureur……Il m’explique ensuite ce qu’on attend de la “partie civile”: elle doit témoigner et interroger les accusés, faire des commentaires, prononcer un plaidoyer et répondre aux questions des avocats de la partie adverse. Je prends peur quand il me précise que je joue un peu le même rôle que lui, mais si lui le fait au nom de la société, je le fais, moi, au nom des descendants de la victime.
South of Paris books 