On Friday, the police judge imposed community service sentences of fifty and sixty hours, half of which are conditional, on two men and two women for threatening and insulting writer Pim Lammers.
Because of the death threats, Lammers, who grew up in Norg, withdrew as a poet for the Children’s Book Week in February. The public prosecutor had demanded fifty hours of community service. A fifth suspect was acquitted.
The 34-year-old Sheryll W. from Amsterdam, who wrote that he wanted to throw a stone at Lammers when he comes to read, was sentenced to the highest community service of sixty hours, of which thirty hours were suspended. This was because she had sent a public Instagram message to Lammers, to which others responded. The other suspects threatened Lammers with private messages.
In a victim impact statement read by the prosecutor, Lammers said that he is still processing the death threats and that he no longer enjoys his work. “Never before has that threat been so massive, so massive and so frightening,” said Lammers about the hundreds of hate messages he received. “What kind of society do we live in if even children’s authors have to be protected,” Lammers wonders.
The police judge ruled that the threats to Lammers were serious. “We heard in his victim impact statement that he continues to suffer from these threats and insults and that they limit his work as a writer. I blame the defendants,” she said in her verdict.
The judge also pointed to the feelings of unrest and fear in society caused by the threats. “Users of social media often close their eyes to the consequences of their internet use. There are limits to what you can send and I think you have overstepped the boundaries. Facts like this need to be addressed. It must be clear to society as a whole that criminal law sets limits on what you can say to and about each other.”
The suspects indicated that they were guided by influencers such as presenter Monique Smit and model Kim Feenstra.
Floris O. (19) from Venlo was acquitted. He denies having written a message with the content: ‘If I find you, I will destroy you’. He said he suspects one of his friends did that on his phone. The prosecutor does not believe this, but the judge was not sure and acquitted him.