The Murder of Julie Van Espen

The disappearance

On the evening of May 4, 2019, Julie Van Espen left her family home in Schilde by bicycle to meet friends in central Antwerp. She never arrived. Her disappearance was treated as alarming from the outset, and searches concentrated around the Albert Canal in Merksem, where the last signal from her phone had been detected.

Search teams recovered items connected to Julie near the canal area. Investigators also examined surveillance footage from the route. A man seen with a bicycle basket was identified as Steve Bakelmans, and police arrested him on May 6.

Identification of the suspect

Bakelmans quickly became the central suspect after investigators linked him to the location and evidence from the route. He admitted killing Julie. Her body was recovered from the Albert Canal during the search, turning what had begun as a missing-person investigation into a murder case.

At trial, the legal questions extended beyond his admission. The jury had to decide whether the evidence established rape, whether the killing was intentional, and whether it was premeditated. In December 2021, the jury answered all three principal questions in the affirmative.

Why the case caused institutional outrage

The murder became a national controversy because Bakelmans had already been convicted in 2017 of raping a former partner and had received a four-year prison sentence, but he remained free while the case moved through appeal proceedings. The later appeal judgment, delivered after Julie’s murder, increased that earlier sentence to five years.

Public anger focused on whether procedural delays, risk assessment and release decisions had left a dangerous offender in the community. Belgium’s High Council of Justice opened a special investigation into the handling of the earlier case. Its follow-up report did not reduce the issue to one simple failure: it found no unexplained delay at first instance, but criticized aspects of risk assessment, the general nature and short duration of release conditions, and the limited way compliance had been monitored.

The assize trial

The murder and rape case was tried before the Antwerp Court of Assize in December 2021. Parts of the proceedings were held behind closed doors to protect Julie’s dignity and privacy when sensitive evidence was discussed. A twelve-member jury considered the evidence over several days.

On December 21, the jury found Bakelmans guilty of raping Julie and of intentionally killing her with premeditation. The verdict therefore established murder rather than a lesser form of homicide and rejected any attempt to characterize the killing as an unintended consequence of another offense.

Life sentence

On December 22, 2021, the court and jury imposed life imprisonment. The sentence included a 20-year security period before ordinary conditional-release consideration and a further 15-year period of placement at the disposal of the sentence-enforcement court.

The court found no mitigating circumstances sufficient to justify a fixed-term sentence. Reporting from the courtroom emphasized the severity of the violence, Bakelmans’s prior convictions and the irreversible harm caused to Julie’s family and friends.

Timeline

What the verdict and review established

The criminal verdict established Bakelmans’s responsibility for raping and murdering Julie Van Espen with premeditation. Separately, the High Council of Justice examined the earlier rape proceedings to understand why he had remained at liberty despite a serious prior conviction.

Those are related but distinct findings. The institutional review did not make the justice system legally responsible for the murder; rather, it identified weaknesses and recommendations concerning risk evaluation, conditions and case management. Keeping that distinction clear avoids turning a complex review into a claim broader than the evidence supports.

Current status

Bakelmans remains under the life sentence imposed in 2021. Later public and civil proceedings concerning the justice system’s handling of his earlier case do not alter the murder conviction or sentence.

Julie Van Espen’s death became a major reference point in Belgium’s debate over sexual violence, victim protection and the speed and coordination of criminal proceedings. For a factual case file, however, the central record remains straightforward: Julie disappeared while traveling to meet friends, Bakelmans was identified and arrested, a jury found rape and premeditated murder proven, and the court imposed life imprisonment.

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