The man charged with murdering two infants and a woman in a knife attack in Belgium last week made a first court appearance today and was ordered to be held in custody for a further month.
Prosecutors confirmed the closed court session's ruling and that Kim De Gelder had attended but gave no further details.
De Gelder, a 20-year-old unemployed Belgian, has been charged with murdering six- and nine-month old babies and a 54-year old woman, and wounding 12 others, 10 of them children.
Prosecutors said yesterday that he was also a suspect in the murder of a 73-year-old woman a week before last Friday's child care centre attack.
De Gelder refused to speak to investigators for over two days but broke his silence yesterday and subsequently spoke to a lawyer appointed to defend him.
Lawyer Jaak Haentjens told Belgian media that De Gelder had denied any involvement in the stabbing of the elderly woman.
The attack at the Fabeltjesland - Fairytale Land - creche in Dendermonde, 30 km west of Brussels, has shocked the country.
The assailant arrived at the creche mid-morning on Friday with a white-painted face and blackened eyes saying he wanted to ask a question but then ran inside and started slashing at victims with a knife, first in a room of babies, then one with toddlers.
Reuters