One of the largest abuse cases in recent years begins in the Breda court on Tuesday. System administrator Gianni de W. (25) from Etten-Leur is said to have extorted more than 170 teenage girls for their nude photos. Grooming and sextortion are more common, but on this scale it is exceptional.
It used to be a scary man in the bushes or a van. With the advent of mobile internet, danger now lurks at home, right on your son or daughter’s mobile phone.
With Instagram and Snapchat you can exchange fun stories, photos and videos, but social media can also be abused for child pornography. The case of Gianni de W. is a good example of this.
Nude photo
Zarah from Zaandam is one of the victims. It started in March 2019. Zarah was 14 years old at the time. She received a message on Snapchat. A 15-year-old boy was interested. But nothing was as it seemed. It was a fake account from De W. “After a while he asked if I wanted to earn money. I then had to take a nude photo.”
After much insistence, she allowed herself to be seduced. Then the trouble started. If Zarah did not do what the perpetrator demanded, he would post the nude photo online. She could prevent that by sending even more nude photos.
Her mother took away her cell phone after six months and then the contact stopped. It later turned out that she was not the only victim. The police gained insight into more than 170 girls and many thousands of photos and videos. Some of them filed a report. Zarah went to the police. She sat in the courtroom with other girls at one of the preliminary hearings.
Lonely gamer
During those sessions, an image emerged of Gianni de W. as a somewhat lonely gamer. But also someone who can pretend to be much nicer online.
As a fifteen-year-old he had already been exposed once. In 2014, he forced a girl online under his own name to send sexually explicit photos. The police warned the boy, but he continued, under an assumed name. That’s how he called himself Bryan.
The allegations in the indictment date back to December 27, 2016: Gianni’s birthday. They will run at least until August 2022. He was arrested in October of that year. He ended up in a special vice department of the prison in Vught. In the meantime, the police received one report after another.
Child pornography
The youngest girls mentioned in the indictment were born in 2007 and are therefore minors. The Public Prosecution Service therefore suspects De W. of possession of child pornography in addition to the fornication.
The evidence provided by the Public Prosecution Service (OM) consists of at least 28 folders with images. These have not been distributed digitally to the lawyers and judges. They are in ‘show folders’ and can be viewed. This is common in sexual offense cases because otherwise the Public Prosecution Service would also commit a crime.
It is also striking in the case how ‘anonymous’ the complaint is. All victim names have been redacted from the remarkably long 22-page indictment for the media. Only birth years are included.
Closed doors
During the process, it concerns thirty specific victims who filed a complaint or made a report. Some of those girls are going to say or read something in court. Some things are behind closed doors. This happens because the suspect was still under 18 when he allegedly committed the crimes.
Six days are set aside for the trial. The public prosecutor will come up with the sentence next week. A ruling is scheduled for early May.