Girls extortionist Gianni de W. finally dares to show himself today in court in Breda, where several of his 172 victims have again shown up. During the previous pro forma hearings (not yet substantive), he chose to remain in his cell ‘because of all the attention to the case’. The victims were therefore unable to look the man in the eye who held them in his grasp from behind his PC, sometimes for months. Today they see him, most of them for the first time.
During the previous hearing, the judge made an appeal to the lawyer to persuade Gianni to attend a hearing. The judge said that ‘it is sometimes a good thing if the suspect experiences media attention for once’. “Because we definitely want him here during the substantive hearing. Then he must come. Otherwise we’ll send for him.”
De W. is there today in the Breda court. “We are happy that you are here,” says the judge, who points out that there will be many more people and journalists involved in the substantive hearing. A few meters behind him are about 20 victims of De W. They have never seen him and only ‘know’ him from the fake account with which he first approached the girls sweetly and then, once he was able to blackmail them with a naked photo , extorted for a long time. De W. is looking straight ahead and has folded his hands.
Now 28 declarations
Gianni de W. from Etten-Leur is suspected of extorting 172 girls and women with nude photos, 93 of whom were minors at the time of the extortion. There are now 26 reports from minors and two from adults.
Justice expects that not everyone will ultimately report the crime. “Some join the case and others have made it known that they no longer want anything to do with it, because it was a long time ago or out of shame or other reasons,” said a spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service.
Two of Gianni’s victims are from Belgium. They have also been approached but have chosen not to report the matter, according to the Public Prosecution Service.
‘Biggest sextortion case ever’
Gianni de W. (24) has been in custody since October 11, 2022, but the case only came to light in January during an equally non-substantive hearing. The public prosecutor then spoke of the ‘largest investigation into online abuse of minors ever in the Netherlands’. De W. was present at the time, but because the enormous scale of the case was not yet clear, the case attracted little attention. De W. did not appear again at the subsequent sessions.
De W. made contact with the girls via social media, including Snapchat and Instagram. He started a conversation and offered the girls money to take nude photos and videos. If the girls wanted to stop, he threatened to put the images online. The police found more than 150 folders with different girls’ names in his computer. Many girls were in his grasp for months, like the first girl to finally report it. She told her story to this site earlier this year. She also came today.
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