A 37-year-old man from Bodegraven is suspected of sexual abuse of minors and sharing child pornography for over 20 years. This was revealed during a preliminary hearing at the court in The Hague.
The man has been in custody since the summer. Investigations indicate that he distributed child pornography through an encrypted communication service.
He allegedly approached victims at a climbing association in the Pentagon sports center in Dordrecht, where he was a coach from 2003 to the end of 2019. Additionally, he was involved with the Zuidhoven church in Dordrecht, leading children’s camps from 2003 to the end of 2028, and was a member of the Ichthus church in Bodegraven until July 2024.
The public prosecutor’s office (OM) suggests he may have contacted minors through these churches. The police’s Child Pornography and Child Sex Tourism team traced him in the summer of last year during an investigation into child pornography on encrypted chat apps.
The man was noted for sharing images of sexual abuse of very young children in multiple groups, according to the OM. He was arrested on July 26 last year and has been in pretrial detention since then.
The number of victims is unclear, and police are seeking victims and witnesses.
Source: NOS