The investigation into images of sexual child abuse in which VRT journalist Sven Pichal is now a suspect is anything but an isolated case. Every year, Child Focus, the Belgian centre for missing and sexually exploited children, receives 2,000 reports. Viewing and distributing images of sexual child abuse: "It doesn't just happen in faraway countries, it happens here too," the centre says.
Child Focus is registering as a civil claimant in the investigation. "On average, we do this about twice a year," explains Heidi De Pauw. "We want to give the unidentified children in the images, children of flesh and blood, a voice and face in court. But we also want to say very clearly to public opinion that these kinds of acts also occur in Belgium."
When people think of child abuse and its accompanying images, distant foreign countries often come to mind. That appears to be a total misconception. "It happens in Belgium too. Suspects and perpetrators are also among us, it may be your neighbour or a teacher. The victims are children who live with us, who go to school here and who play football in the neighbourhood. They too are sexually abused; images are also made of them and these images are then shared and viewed millions and millions of times a day."
Tim Stroobants of the Flemish Expertise Centre for Child Abuse also emphasises this. "There are still many public misconceptions. For example, perpetrators of sexual abuse are not dirty, strange men. Reality teaches us the opposite: perpetrators of child sexual abuse are often people who come across as helpful, sociable or empathetic. We often assume that perpetrators of sexual abuse are monsters, but monsters do not exist”.
Disconcerting figures
"The present case is getting a lot of attention now because it involves a well-known personality, but every day we see files of people viewing, possessing, collecting and making such images. This is not an isolated case. The fact that now it is someone who is well-known does not make it worse or less bad."
The figures are staggering: every year, Child Focus receives 2,000 reports of images of sexual abuse. Not every report involves actual images. But at the same time: a report can also contain dozens, hundreds or thousands of images. "It is very difficult to put a figure on it and we suspect that there are a very large number," Stroobants says. The actual number of images - and the actual number of victims - is probably much higher than we currently know.
It is important that the police not only focus on perpetrators, but also make every effort to identify the children, stresses Heidi De Pauw. "It is not just about counting how many Giga- or Terabytes are involved. Everything must also be done to identify the children so that the abuse can be stopped and the children can be helped."
"There are no limits"
"Sometimes these are individual cases, but often the temptation is there and people get involved in a network," says De Pauw. That can be through platforms on the dark web, but also through apps you and I use, think of WhatsApp or Telegram. "That's where images are exchanged. It sometimes takes on gruesome forms."
What is certain is that it does not stop at national borders. "Sometimes an investigation starts in the United States, after which they see a Belgian IP address, which is then investigated further. In cases like this, there are no borders."