A 27-year-old former police office and youth athletics coach has been given a 2-year custodial sentence, 1.5 years of which suspended, after he had been found guilty of indecent behaviour with minor at the athletics club where he was a coach.
Former policed officer sentenced to 2-years imprisonment for indecent behaviour with minors
Published:
The case came to light in 2022 after a 14-year-old victim to his parents that he was being stalked and threatened. The parents reported this to the police. The man and the boy knew each other from an athletics club in Wichelen (East Flanders). He coached children aged between 11 and 13.
Between November 2020 and February 2022, he regularly sent messages via Snapchat. The man asked the boy if he wanted to be his secret lover and sent him photo of him touching himself in his underpants. The man also asked the boy for nude photographs and suggested that he would “come and wash his back and make him horny”. The boy rejected the man’s advances after which the man started threatening him.
The youth athletics coach assured the judge that he didn’t send the messages because he is a paedophile, but rather that he “did it for a kick”. The public prosecutor had asked for a 4-year custodial sentence. It transpired that that the man had made inappropriate advance towards other children as well. However, none of them pressed charges.
Football club
While the investigation was still ongoing, the man started as a photographer at a football club. Soon he was assistant trainer of the club’s U13 team (children aged 12 and 13).
This was despite him being banned from having contact with children. The court sentenced the accused to 2 year’s imprisonment, 18 months of which suspended. He has been banned from contact minors, both online or in person and from consuming alcohol. He will also have undergo treatment for his psychological problems.