For several seconds, a young woman looks at the black hoodie and the tightly combed hair of a man sitting in the courtroom, his head leaning against his left arm, three meters in front of her. She has never seen him before, according to her lawyer. Yet it is he who is said to have made the woman’s life “hell.” In 2019, he allegedly posed as a reality star on Snapchat and promised her that she could dance in a music video. “What started as something innocent turned into a major tragedy,” she says.
In the Groningen court, 32-year-old Mark S. from the Achterhoek village of Borculo is on trial on the first of five hearing days in what is called a ‘sextortion case’. Sextortion is extortion via nude images. In addition to extortion, S. is also suspected of rape, stalking, producing child pornography and fornication with young women and underage girls. The victims come from all over the Netherlands. The case is in Groningen, because a girl from the province of Groningen went to the police in 2024. She did not report the matter, the Public Prosecution Service initiated its own investigation. S. has been in pre-trial detention for two years.
In court on Tuesday, there are three victims, but thirty girls appear in the investigation file – this may be the tip of the iceberg. The public prosecutor accuses S. of fifteen criminal offenses. Incriminating images were found on two seized phones.
Before the presiding judge asks about the victims in the morning, she has a projection screen rolled out. It lists all ‘data carriers’ that emerged in the investigation: four computers, six telephones and seven telephone numbers. A jumble, just like the number of accounts through which the suspect had contact with his victims. Already when dealing with the first criminal offense, the extortion and rape of the Groningen girl who reported it to the police, the court chairman says things like: “I have to interrupt you for a moment”, “I will press the pause button” and “do you understand that this seems a bit like a schizophrenic story?” “No problem,” says the suspect – words he uses at least ten times during the first day of the hearing when the judge interrupts.
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Nightmares and suicidal thoughts
S. states that the Groningen girl wanted to send nude photos to an account he was behind. He states that they did not have sex, but that he “went along” with the girl’s story and had something with her that “only resembled sex.” The chairman raises her voice, raises her eyebrows. “Then why don’t you intervene yourself?”
The oldest judge looks at the suspect with a frown all day. “You might think that you have studied the file and come up with an explanation. When the chairman asks you something, you look back through your notes, even if it wasn’t very long ago.” That impression is not correct, says S., I kept looking at the chairman. The oldest judge draws a parallel with a mouse that, assuming the judge is the cat, comes up with something new every time “the cat almost has the mouse.” That is “not the approach at all,” says S.
Many gruesome details are yet to come – especially when it comes to the facts that the young woman who S. sees for the first time this Tuesday, here in court, has experienced. S. is said to have managed a Skype account for which the girls had to carry out sexual ‘assignments’, with the aim of preventing the distribution of their nude photos – which S. had already obtained from them through deception. The victim had forcible sex with several men, including a neighbor, her underage brothers and a dog. She had to send images of this to the ‘scan account’.
According to her lawyer, the woman went to the police several times, but they reportedly took little action
“For five years I gave thousands of euros to you and sent photos and videos according to your wishes,” says the victim. “I received so many messages from those fake accounts every day that after your arrest I couldn’t believe that only you were behind this.” According to her lawyer, the woman went to the police several times, but they allegedly took little action: “There is no one who takes her seriously.” Her report, just like the girl in Groningen, did not lead to a report. The young woman, who still has nightmares every day and struggles with suicidal thoughts, had to spend two nights in prison. Seized images allegedly showed that she herself committed criminal offenses. “Because I had to do things on your behalf,” she says to S. “And then I was suddenly also a suspect.”
Money for gambling addiction
The suspect avoids eye contact with the victim and the rest of the room throughout the session. When he walks in and out of the room, he focuses his gaze on the wall. After the young woman’s account, the judge asks S. for a response. “It affects me terribly, I have already said that I am sorry.” S. insists that it was about the money, not the sexual excitement. He needed that money to finance his gambling addiction. He insists that “arrangements” had been made with the girls by “the accounts” (himself) about sharing in the profits.
The chairman raises her voice again. “I have read almost ten thousand pages of the file and nowhere, absolutely nowhere, have I read that it is proposed: let’s make money together.”
After this day of hearing in which the physical abuse was discussed, eleven more sextortion cases will follow on Thursday. Next week, after all hearing days, the Public Prosecution Service’s sentence will follow.
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