The murder trial of a 15-year-old boy, accused of killing a 15-year-old girl for cash, was held in public on Monday although cases involving juveniles are usually closed sessions.

Jinhua K has admitted stabbing Joyce ‘Winsie’ Hau to death and seriously injuring her father in January when he was just 14. He is said to have acted as a contract killer and carried out the murder after two girls became embroiled in an argument on Facebook.
According to television reporter Daan van de Staal, the murder was carried out for just €20.
The case was heard in public because it is ‘important society knows the facts’ about the role played by social media in the case. That is more important than the privacy of the suspect, the judging panel in Arnhem is quoted by Nos as saying.
Damage
The murder followed an online argument after the victim allegedly wrote something nasty about her friend Polly W on the social networking site Facebook. The row then escalated and simmered for several weeks before Polly, aged 16 and her boyfriend Wesley C, 17, hired Jinhua to kill their friend.
According to a reconstruction of the crime by television current affairs show EenVandaag, Jinhua was given a note with the address of his victim and told when she would home. K came under strong pressure from the duo who threatened him with death if he did not carry out their wishes, the tv report said.
During the hearing, Jinhua told the court he was ‘enormously sorry’.
Social workers and the boy’s lawyer had called for the case to be heard behind closed doors. However, a psychologist and a psychiatrist both told the court an open hearing would not be damaging to the boy. Jinhua faces a maximum sentence of one year in jail plus detention in a psychiatric institution.
The case against Polly and Wesley will heard on Tuesday, when the prosecution will state whether they should be tried as juveniles or adults.
The verdict in Jinhua’s case will be published on September 3.