Eight years in prison has been demanded against former dance school owner Khalid A. He is said to have abused thirteen students of his Groningen Dance Center, including one from Hoogeveen.
A. has no answer. It typifies his attitude during the trial: he has no explanations for the allegations. The pupils who reported conspiring against him, says A.
The man was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2021 for sexually abusing various pupils, teachers and trainees at his dance school. The charges range from assault, fornication to rape.
On appeal it turned out that the Public Prosecution Service had aggravated the suspicions: he is now suspected of raping three girls. Previously there were two. A total of thirteen declarations were made.
The suspect denies all allegations. In fact, he considers himself the victim of a smear campaign against him. He admits to having had sex with a 17-year-old girl, but according to him that would have been voluntary. In the first instance, the court did not agree with this judgment: A. was sentenced to seven years in prison and a professional ban of twelve years after his release.
According to the Public Prosecution Service, his working method can be called refined. A. owned the dance school as well as coached the highest teams. The underage girls in those teams also trained one on one with him. He would then have the girls do stretches and put them in a split position that they couldn’t get out of on their own.
According to the majority of statements, the suspect was wearing pants with a hole at the crotch. If the girls were in a painful and difficult position, he assaulted them, according to the public prosecutor. “That’s traumatic.”
“The statements are consistent and detailed,” says the prosecutor about the girls’ reports. “There is a pattern of transgressive behavior.”
In 2017, the man was also accused of sexual misconduct. Then agreements were made: he could never be alone with girls again. “He has trampled on this. The way he acted makes him a sex offender of the toughest kind.”
A.’s lawyer will speak later that day. Then A. himself gets the last word. It is not yet known when the ruling will be.