The 24-year-old babysitter from Schagen, who is suspected of child abuse, collected child pornography for years. The Public Prosecution Service said this at a first preparatory hearing in the case. According to the judiciary, thousands of images with child pornographic material were found on the man’s phone and computers, stored between November 2015 and May 2023.
De Schagenees was a babysitter for at least eleven families from all over the country. He offered himself via Marktplaats from 2019 and asked for a considerably lower rate than others, the Public Prosecution Service said earlier. He wasn’t a cop.
One babysitting child has now been identified on the images. The child’s mother has filed a complaint. It is not certain that there was sexual abuse at the other addresses where he presented himself as a babysitter, but according to the Public Prosecution Service, it cannot yet be ruled out. No new babysitting families have reported to the police.
The suspect’s phone still contains images of child pornography of which the children have not yet been identified. The Public Prosecution Service has yet to determine whether the images were made by the man himself.
Research in Pieter Baan Center
The detective has so far viewed 60 percent of the images on all so-called data carriers of the man. It is now estimated that there are more than 21,000 photos and more than 3,000 videos with child pornography on the man’s devices.
More than 3000 chats with others were also found on the suspect’s phone. Animal pornography was also found. The man will probably be examined at the end of October at the Pieter Baan Center.
Lawyer Carlo Crince le Roy said at the hearing that the man is wrongly portrayed as a large-scale child abuser. For example, he mentioned a photo of a hand rubbing a diaper, which he says does not fall under child pornography.
A second suspect is also detained in the investigation, a 38-year-old man from Alkmaar. The man from Schagen would have sent him images of child abuse. The OM considers it “very possible” that child pornography was shared with other people. The case continues on November 6.
- Babysitter from Schagen suspected of abusing children
