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

serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

. After participating in the 2006 robbery-murder of

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

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 of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

plus 25 years.

Early life

Little is known about Kabunda's childhood. Born in the capital to Congolese 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 (; nl, Edingen ; pcd, Inguî; vls, Enge) 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 dens ...

, Hainaut. When they noticed that he was entering his

Honda Civic The is a series of automobiles manufactured by Honda since 1972. Since 2000, the Civic has been categorized as a compact car, while previously it occupied the subcompact class. , the Civic is positioned between the Honda Fit/City and Honda Acc ...

, 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 () or Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe (Dutch, ) is one of the nineteen municipalities in the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium. It is a prosperous residential area, with a mixture of flats and detached, semi-detached and terraced hous ...

. 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 Nivelles Prison discovered a SIM card 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 A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordanc ...

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