Cheers and applause in the public gallery; The court in Rotterdam on Tuesday sentenced 46-year-old Mels van B. from Barendrecht to a prison sentence of eighteen years, four years more than the Public Prosecution Service had demanded, plus TBS with compulsory treatment. The man, a divorced father of two children, listened to the verdict impassively. The higher sentence is “due to the exceptional and far-reaching nature of the proven facts”, according to the court.
The IT professional abused sixteen of his daughter’s friends, as well as his daughter herself and a niece, while staying at his home in Barendrecht or in his caravan at a campsite in Hoeven, Brabant. That abuse took place over a period of thirteen years. Most victims were between four and thirteen years old at the time of the abuse. The man often drugged them with sleeping pills, sometimes in high doses, to perform “extensive sexual acts” undisturbed and unnoticed. With this drugging, the man took “major risks for the health of the victims,” according to the court. The court considers all 37 charges proven, from sexual abuse and assault and the production and storage of photos and videos of children, to the possession of “millions of images” of child pornography.
Pieter Baan Center
Experts from the Pieter Baan Center previously determined that Barendrecht has an autism spectrum disorder, a pedophilic disorder and hypersexuality. This means that the abuse can be attributed to him “to a lesser extent”, the court notes. Nevertheless, the man was, as he also stated during the hearings, all too aware that what he did was punishable. “He planned his actions carefully and he managed to keep the abuse well hidden from the outside world.” During treatment by a psychologist years ago, the man also concealed that he harbored pedophilic feelings for young girls, “because he was afraid that this would have major consequences for him.” In doing so, he has put his own interests above those of his victims, the court states. The judges see no reason to, in turn, accommodate his interests by imposing a shorter prison sentence on him, as his lawyers had requested, so that TBS treatment can start earlier.
Parents are ‘relieved’
Many parents of the children are “happy” and “relieved” that the court has increased the required sentence. “Especially because of the explanation given by the court; that the man has always put his own interests above those of his victims,” says spokesperson Bart Visser on behalf of many parents. However, many parents are “cautiously” pleased, the spokesperson said, because an appeal may follow. “This is a form of recognition for us,” say in court Arno and Sandra, the parents of one of the abused girls, who prefer not to mention their surname. “We are very pleased that the judges have pushed through the man’s story and that they emphasize that he acted systematically.” It will be “two tough weeks”, they say, in which they will have to wait and see whether there will be an appeal. “He says himself that he deeply regrets his actions, so we hope that there will be no appeal and that he will accept this sentence.”
When determining the sentence, the court further took into account the major consequences that the abuse has on the families of the abused children. Some parents struggle with feelings of guilt because they have not been able to protect their daughters, while others suffer from severe stress, including doubts about whether they should inform their children or family about the abuse. Evelien Ligthart (36), mother of one of the abused girls, did tell her now twelve-year-old daughter about the abuse years ago. “That seemed best to me.” Like many other parents, she is satisfied with the verdict, including for her daughter, who previously said in a statement to the court that she hopes that the man will receive a severe sentence, but that he will also “learn” and realize what he did wrong. “With this verdict I can come home to my daughter,” she says. She also calls the verdict a “nice gesture” to society. “People find what he did so terrible that they wish him all kinds of things and no punishment can be severe enough. This verdict responds to those feelings.”
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