The man who was hit over the head with a paving slab while he was sleeping rough in a Rotterdam street has woken up from his coma and police have confirmed the arrest of the perpetrator in France.

The victim’s half-sister, Amy Boekhoudt, told Bar Laat talk show hosts that her brother Benjamin was not homeless, as was reported, but wanted a few days away from a communal living group “so as not to bother the others with his problems”.

Some €30,000 has been collected for the man via crowdfunding  “to see he gets the best of care and will not be forced to sleep rough”, Boekhoudt said.

Police have now confirmed that 32-year-old Cameroon national Levis E, who was arrested in Toulon, not only bludgeoned a local homeless man to death with a concrete block but also attacked the man in Rotterdam.

E was under an order to leave French territory and wanted for murders and attempted murders in Évry, Strasbourg, and Dijon, Le Parisien said.