A teacher from the East Flemish municipality of Beveren has been given a 7-year prison sentence after he was found guilty of abusing as many as 185 underage girls. Much of the abuse took place online.
7-year prison sentence for East Flemish teacher found guilty of abusing as many as 185 minors
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The sentence given by the court is more severe than the 5 years that had been requested by the prosecution. The judge said that the severity of the sentence is justified given the “repulsive nature” of the crimes and their “far-reaching perversity”. The man actively looked for vulnerable girls on web forums for people with anorexia. The abuse happened primarily during online chat sessions. The man encouraged the girls tos end him nude photographs. In one case he actually met his victim in person.
His first victim was 17 when 2 years ago he contacted her through a forum where people with eating disorders can make contact with an “ana coach” that will help them to lose weight.
He used apps such as Snapchat to encourage the girl to strip and perform sexual acts on herself. They later arranged to meet. The man went to The Netherlands to pick the girl up and brought her to his home in Beveren (East Flanders). There he tried to rape her. Between April 2023 and 11 november 2023 he met up with the girl a further 6 times. On 5 of these occasion he raped her, beat her and forced her to carry out denigrating acts. The victim had an eating disorder and was taking medication for depression, hallucinations and psychosis.
Tens of thousands of images of abuse
A search of the man’s home resulted in the confiscation of two mobile phones, a Chrombook, a box containing sex toys, 16 hard disks, 4 USB sticks, a desktop computer and a Garmin satnav.
On these detectives found tens of thousands of images of abuse, primarily of minors. The man also used several apps on which he openly talked about sexual contacts with minors.
The court convicted him of rape, assault on sexual integrity, grievous bodily harm, inhuman treatment, cyberstalking and the possession of images of the sexual abuse of children. He was sentenced to 7-years imprisonment. Following his release from prison he will remain on probation for a further five years. During this period he will also be denied the right to vote.
The court saw the vulnerable condition of the (many) victims as an aggravating circumstance and hence passed a sentence that was more severe that what had been requested by the prosecution.