The Public Prosecution Service (OM) has demanded 8 years in prison and TBS with compulsory treatment against a 45-year-old man from the municipality of Halderberge for founding the website ‘Boywankers’ in September 2011. Users shared illegal images of sexual acts involving boys aged between 8 and 18 years on the platform. The police have made the website inaccessible and identified 18 underage Dutch victims.
The suspect was not only the founder and administrator of the website, he is also suspected of having actively produced and shared illegal material himself. The Child Pornography and Child Sex Tourism Team (TBKK) of the National Unit of Investigation and Interventions arrested the man on March 19, 2024. During the search of his home, various data carriers were seized. A total of 16,458 child pornographic images were found. The police could not investigate all the data because some data carriers were encrypted.
Misled
On Boywankers, users shared images of underage boys performing sexual acts for the webcam. The teenagers were largely misled. For instance, the suspect pretended to be Wendy, a 19-year-old woman, in chat conversations. The boys did not know that recordings were being made of them and that these were subsequently distributed. According to the public prosecutor of the National Prosecutors Office, the suspect had a leading role in both managing the website and providing the illegal material until the day of his arrest.
“The suspect has had misleading, sexual contact with minors digitally for years, day in and day out. He has produced and distributed child pornographic material and made a lot of money from it. The horrible thing about this digital abuse is that images posted on the internet often do not disappear. Countless children must live with the knowledge that their photos or videos can and will be viewed over and over again.”
1.4 million
The man has reportedly made a lot of money from Boywankers. Users could subscribe and pay with cryptocurrency to access a restricted part of the website. The public prosecutor has seized bitcoin wallets worth 1.4 million euros. A confiscation has also been announced that will be dealt with later.
During the investigation, the police intercepted usernames and IP addresses of users. This involved both Dutch and foreign users. In identifying the victims, the police focused on the Dutch victims because the chances of identification were greatest with them. There were many more (international) victims, but the police had to make choices due to the enormous amount of data.
Criminal organization
In addition to the suspicion of possession, production, and distribution of child pornography and committing indecency with minors via a video connection, the public prosecutor sees the suspect as the leader of a criminal organization that distributed child pornography for years. Boywankers was, according to her, a well-organized platform, with a hierarchy and a mutual division of roles among administrators and moderators.
The court will rule in two weeks.