A 14-year-old boy who has admitted stabbing his parents to death at the family farmhouse in last year, should be given the maximum sentence under juvenile law, the public prosecutor has told a closed court session.

This means the boy would spend a year in a juvenile prison, followed by treatment in a psychiatric prison.

No more details about the case have been made public and it is unclear what motivated the boy to attack his mother and father at their home.

The bodies of the 63-year-old man and 62-year-old woman were found by neighbours who share the property and the boy, the youngest of three sons, was arrested shortly afterwards.

Katlijk, close to Heerenveen, is a small village of just 600 people and the double murder has shocked locals. The family were not known to be a problem and were not involved with social services, the town’s mayor told the Leeuwarder Courant.

The court will rule on the case in two weeks time. That session will be open to the public and the press.