At least 15 Belgian girls aged between 9 and 17 have fallen victim to a Dutch paedophile who lured them with a video game he designed himself. News of the online child sexual abuse first appeared in ‘Het Laatste Nieuws’ and has since been confirmed by the Dutch public prosecutor's office. In addition to the 15 Belgian victims already identified it is possible that more girls in Belgium might have been lured into sharing explicit images of themselves and/or into performing sexual acts while playing the game.
A 40-year-old man from Herten in the Dutch province of Limburg is suspected of the online sexual abuse of more than 150 girls aged between 9 and 17. The girls were persuaded to perform sexual acts in front of the camera as part of a game that he had party designed himself.
When playing the game, the girls had to perform tasks that they were asked to do via online chat. Meike Willebrands from the Dutch Public Prosecution Service told VRT News that the tasks started off as harmless, but gradually they became sexual and sometimes the girls were required to take off items of clothing. The girls were also filmed.
300 videos
The Dutch police began investigating the suspect after receiving a tip-off from the United States. 300 videos were found in the man's possession. The online abuse is believed to have started in 2017.
Some of the recordings were made by the suspect himself, while others were obtained from other men. Ms Willebrand says that their identities are still under investigation. The investigation is still ongoing. So far Dutch prosecutors have identified 40 victims from the Netherlands and 15 from Belgium.
“The other girls we have found speak on the videos English. The Dutch police are conducting the investigation regarding the Dutch girls, and we are using Europol for the foreign girls.”
Dutch prosecutors are calling on potential victims to come forward. They can do so by sending an email to this address: melding-highscore-game.lb@politie.nl.