Rotterdam: Former classmates and neighbours of accused murderer Vincent Stanford have recalled a troubled boy who was once suspended from primary school in a Dutch city after being involved in a "serious" incident.

One local woman, who asked not to be named, had several children at the school in Zoetermeer - Prins Florisschool - including a daughter in Mr Stanford's class.

She told Fairfax Media she remembers thinking he was "a bit strange - but who is normal?" she said. "I saw them around - not very happy, but just average, nothing special."

The incident was serious enough for the school headmaster at the time to be called back from a retreat with other local school heads to deal with it.

"They took it very seriously," said another parent, whose daughter was in Mr Stanford's year. "The boy had to leave the school, but I don't know if forever."

"He was kicked out of school for some months," said a former classmate who witnessed the incident, but did not wish to be named.

Mr Stanford, 24, has been charged with murder after Stephanie Scott, a 26-year-old high school teacher in the NSW Riverina town of Leeton, went missing on Easter Sunday and was found dead last Friday, the day before she was due to be married.

Mr Stanford was raised in Zoetermeer and attended the school with his twin brother, Marcus, before returning to Australia last year and settling in Leeton, where he lived with his mother, Anika.

Neighbours and former classmates in the city said they were shocked to hear the news.

"It's just working people around here, normal working people with children," said one neighbour from the street on which the Stanfords used to live. "We have some break-ins, some stolen cars, that's all."

Local paper Zoetermeer Actief quoted sources in the area saying Mr Stanford was a "quiet boy", who lived with his identical twin brother, older brother and mother in a residential suburb of Zoetermeer.

They remembered him as having an "unkempt" appearance - and they also remembered his being suspended from school.

Both the Daily Mail Australia and the Zoetermeer Actief have reported on Mr Stanford's past at the school, near to the family's former home in Zoetermeer, about half an hour's drive north of Rotterdam.

The Daily Mail reported that Prins Florisschool principal Annette Mulder said Mr Stanford had been involved in "an aggressive incident".

However Ms Mulder, when contacted by Fairfax Media and asked to confirm the comment, said: "I did not say anything about aggressive incidents at all."

She confirmed that Mr Stanford attended the school for one or two years but it was a long time ago and no current teachers knew anything about him, she said.

- with Rachel Olding