Ryan Pieters (27) was on Tuesday given a life sentence for the manslaughter of the 24-year-old Dutch pharmacy assistant Marlies van der Kouwe on the Caribbean island of Bonaire last year, reports ANP news service.

Announcing its sentence, the court on the island of Curacao said the public prosecution’s charge of rape could not be proven.
Pieters confessed pulling Van der Kouwe from her bike to steal her bag and said he strangled her when she resisted so that she would not be able to recognise him.
Her body was found 10 kms away a month later. Pieters has two previous convictions for rape.