“This is the fear of every parent, that your child playing outside is approached by a stranger, inappropriate proposals are made, or worse, that your child is touched and molested.” This is how the prosecutor began the justification of the sentence request against a 28-year-old suspect from Almelo. The allegations against him involve one rape of a child under 12 years old, an assault, showing his genitals to children, and sexually approaching children under 12 and/or under 16 years old.
The latter particularly concerned the approach of a total of 13 young victims. The suspect asked sexually charged questions that are considered harmful to children. All these criminal offenses took place on multiple occasions, between October and December 2024, in places including Zutphen. The description and the bicycle of the suspect consistently matched the statements of the victims, the modus operandi is the same, and according to the Public Prosecution Service, camera footage and/or phone data show that it was this suspect who approached children.
The suspect heard a prison sentence of four years demanded against him today. Also, according to the Public Prosecution Service - in line with advice from the Netherlands Institute for Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology (NIFP) - a TBS with involuntary commitment should be imposed on him afterwards. Research shows that the suspect has a pedophilic disorder, that he is partially accountable, and that the risk of recidivism is high.
The prosecutor also noted today that he has previously been convicted twice, in 2022 and 2023, for similar offenses. He was still under probation in these cases and was undergoing treatment for his disorders: “The Public Prosecution Service takes it very seriously that the suspect committed these new offenses during this treatment. This clearly shows that the suspect needs long-term treatment without unsupervised leave.”
In the eyes of the Public Prosecution Service, all legal requirements for the imposition of TBS are met: there is a case of deficient development or pathological disorder that is untreated and present, there is a crime for which a prison sentence of 4 years or more applies, and the safety of others - or the general safety of persons or goods - requires the imposition of the TBS measure.
