She really had no idea. The police showed up at 34-year-old Sheryll W. from Amsterdam this spring and she had to come along. But why?
Only during the interrogation did something dawn on her. That she had once responded to a message from a well-known influencer on Instagram. He had posted something about some children’s book author allegedly writing a pedophile fiction story. Sheryll didn’t know him otherwise, hadn’t clicked through, but it stirred something in her. She is a single mother of a four-year-old daughter, is very protective about it, and has experienced abuse herself.
So when she read that post on Instagram in the evening, and all the angry reactions below it, it all came up again and boom… „Dirty pedophile, that Pim!!! If I ever see him reading something to my kids!!!! I’ll throw a stone at his head!” In her response to the post, she posted two ax emoticons.
The judge, bending over: “You didn’t think, should I do this?”
“At that moment…” Sheryll, now regretful, struggles to hold back her tears during the hearing. “That was my reaction. I just hit enter.”
That was my response. I just hit enter
Sheryl W. suspect
“Misconsiderate.” “Impulsive.” “Just a little bit of shit.” A selection of the reactions of the five suspects who have to answer for the same offense on Friday before the police judge in Utrecht. They do not know each other, but according to the Public Prosecution Service, all have threatened and / or insulted writer Pim Lammers online. That was at the end of January, when the children’s author fell victim to an online hate campaign.
Read also: How conservatives and ‘awake’ influencers campaigned side by side against Pim Lammers
The smear started after the announcement that Lammers (29), known for his stories about gender and sexual diversity, would write the poem for the Children’s Book Week. The radical right-wing website reactionair.nl published a critical piece about the writer, after which excerpts were published on conservative blogs Trainer (2016), an adult literary story about the relationship between a teenage boy and his football coach, taking on a life of its own. After well-known Dutch people such as singer Monique Smit and model Kim Feenstra also posted about it, the bomb burst.
Hundreds of death threats
Lammers received hundreds of online death threats and his address was published. Most of the threats were anonymous – which is why only five suspects have been prosecuted. Because of the hate campaign, he retired as the author of the Children’s Book Week poem.
The profile of the five suspects? One is from Hoevelaken, the other from Kaatsheuvel, two from Venlo and one from Amsterdam. Three men, two women. All between 22 and 34 years old, without a criminal record and in possession of an Instagram account. None of them knew the author before they sent their curses – from “dirty pedo” to “they should hang you” – into the world. Nor had they ever read anything by him. 33-year-old Joyce N. from Venlo, mother of two, stated that she was suffering from pregnancy hormones when she saw a post about the writer on Insta and sent him a personal message – “I don’t normally react that impulsively”. And also 31-year-old Jonathan S., an online fitness coach, says he acted “out of emotion”.
According to the public prosecutor, the thoughtlessness with which the suspects acted is in stark contrast to the consequences for the victim. The officer demands 50 hours of community service in all cases and calls the threats an attack on “free speech”. She reads Lammers’ victim statement, which shows that the consequences are still being felt. He has had to cancel many lectures and ‘fear’ has crept into his pen. “How can you still write freely if you have to wonder with every sentence whether it results in a death threat?”
No, the suspects say, that was not their intention. But the magistrate has no compassion. She sentences four suspects to community service of fifty and sixty hours, half of which are suspended. She acquits one suspect.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper on September 2, 2023.