Mother fears release of son’s killer after just 15 years in jail

LIFE TERM: Dundee murderer battered and stabbed victim while high on drugs

The mother of a Dutch artist killed by a Dundee drug addict has spoken of her fears her son’s killer could be freed in just 15 years.

John Styles, 21, has been jailed for life, with a minimum 15-year term, for murdering Jeroen Van Neijhof in his city centre home in May.

After battering and stabbing him and leaving him for dead, he boasted: “I danced on his head.”

Styles had been released on bail just seven days earlier, having robbed a woman at knifepoint in the city.

Speaking from the Netherlands, Mr Van Neijhof’s mother, Yvonne Van Essen, said: “Now this man is punished we can begin to cope with the death of Jeroen.

“We are disappointed, however, that a life sentence in Scotland in reality means 15 years in prison.”

She had feared he could be freed even earlier but said she had received assurances from Police Scotland this would not happen.

She said: “The police called me today and reassured me that these 15 years are set in stone.

“The longer this man remains locked up, the better.”

Styles was homeless at the time and had been begging outside the Co-op on Albert Street.

Edinburgh High Court heard yesterday Styles and his victim had met outside the Stobswell supermarket the night before Mr Neijhof was found dead.

The pair had gone back to the flat on Brown Constable Street, where they took drugs including ketamine and MDMA.

Things turned sour when Styles – a habitual drug user from the age of 14 – asked if Mr Neijhof had any heroin.

Enraged there was none in the flat, Styles subjected Mr Neijhof to a brutal and sustained attack, battering him around the head and stabbing him 19 times.

Styles, still heavily under the influence of drugs, then left Mr Neijhof for dead and travelled to his former partner’s flat.

There, he told Janette Melrose – his accomplice in the previous robbery – he had done something “bad” and had “danced all over his head”.

The manager of the nearby hotel at which Mr Neijhof worked as a cleaner discovered his body on Friday May 2.

His face was so badly beaten, police forensics officers at the mortuary in Dundee were unable to identify him and a DNA sample had to be obtained from the Netherlands.

Mark Stewart QC, in mitigation, said Styles could only offer his apology to Mr Neijhof’s family for what he had done.

He said: “Mr Styles appreciates the reality of this matter. He makes no excuses for his act and acknowledges he will be subject to a life sentence.

“His background is uneventful, he left school at 14 and from there slipped into drug addiction.

“He was known to Mr Neijhof and had developed a friendship, on a superficial level, with him, where they shared taking drugs together.

“There is no real explanation why he did what he did. He has done the only thing now he can do, which is to admit what he did.

“He offers his full apology to Mr Neijhof’s family.”

Sentencing Styles, Lady Carmichael said this was another appalling example of the harm drug addiction can cause.

She said: “You subjected your victim to an extreme and violent attack.

“You committed this murder while on bail and your addiction has played a significant role in this.

“In relation to charge one, of murder, there is only one sentence I can serve, which is life.”

Styles was told he will serve at least 15 years in prison, reduced from 18 in light of his guilty plea at the first opportunity.

Top: Jeroen Van Neijhof was killed in his city centre home in May; Above: John Styles had been released on bail when he carried out the attack.