The case can be followed closely via the live blog below this article.
The foster parents from Vlaardingen are also on trial for abusing her half-sister and two boys. On this first day of hearing, the court discusses the allegations.
There is great interest in the three-day criminal case against the foster parents from Vlaardingen. Many motorcyclists also showed support with their motorcycles in front of the extra-secure court in Rotterdam on Thursday. They are the Bikers Against Child Abuse, whose aim is to create a safer environment for abused and mistreated children.
Not all interested parties fit into the public gallery. The court has therefore also opened a video room. The suspects, both 38 years old, were arrested in May last year after their foster daughter was seriously injured a week earlier. The girl had broken bones, brain damage and was in a coma for a while.
Sentencing sentences are expected on Friday afternoon.
Foster parents Johnny van den B. and Daisy W. will appear before the Rotterdam court today, where the criminal case regarding the abuse of a now 11-year-old girl will be substantively dealt with.
The girl was, among other things, locked in a homemade cage that was electrified, was barely given food or water and suffered serious brain damage.
There is enormous interest in the case, as court reporter Saskia Belleman saw. The case was supposed to start at 9 am, but there was still a long line at the security checkpoint. The suspects entered the room around a quarter to 10.
The case came to light in May 2024. The biological mother was alerted that her daughter was in the hospital. “Everything was running,” the mother told De Telegraaf. “I just asked: where is she, I want to see her.”
The foster girl could hardly walk. She said she “got ripped off for not cleaning the bathroom.” Daisy W. and Johnny vd B. went to pick her up together. Johnny vd B.: “We have shown that she has often made these kinds of accusations.”
She says that the foster girl also sometimes paid for a “crosant for 29 cents, but also brought another sandwich.” The child reported to the police station one day with the story that she had been abused by her foster parents.
When asked whether the foster girl was an opponent for her, Daisy W. says, “I let more people walk all over me.” She says that the child once walked out of the AH with a jar of pickles without paying. “She’s actually testing you.”
Johnny vd B.: “Because you are so close to it, at a certain point you no longer see it. And then it is too late. If only I knew why. Because I never expected this of myself.” A tear runs down his cheek.
Was the foster girl, a child between 8 and 10 years old, an ‘adversary’ for the foster parents, the chairman asks? Johnny vd B.: “I think I saw it that way, yes. But it happened so often that it became normal.”
According to Daisy W., the foster girl had smeared the bathroom with foundation. “She had to clean that up for me.” Johnny vd B.: “Then at some point I say, it has to be ready within half an hour. An agreement is an agreement.”
It is now about a photo of a sink that Daisy W. sent to Johnny vd B.: “The bathroom is still completely dirty.” Johnny vd B.: “Okay, already 4 hours and still dirty?” Daisy W.: “Then she is challenging me.”
But according to Johnny vd B. it is more nuanced. “Everything can be arranged, as long as we know in time. In a family with 6 agendas you have to be able to coordinate things. But if you are told on Friday that you have to be somewhere on Monday…?”
In September 2023, there was app traffic between the foster parents and the institutions about play therapy and contact with a mental health psychologist for the foster girl. They did not want to participate in that. No time.
The chairman says that he “came across the suggestion somewhere in the file that it was better not to get rid of the foster girl, because then she might start talking about what she experienced with you.” It is not clear who made that suggestion.
Johnny vd B. says that he had a very good conversation with the foster girl about a possible transfer to another family. He stays there, she didn’t want that herself.
According to Daisy W., the foster girl had accused a previous foster father of sexual abuse. He was arrested. “John was also afraid that would happen to him. I wasn’t. It was aimed at men.”
At some point there was an opportunity to transfer the foster girl to another family. But just then the child was doing better, says Johnny vd B. “She also wanted to stay with us. I said: Then we will fight for you.”
But according to Johnny vd B., the foster carers could really talk to the girl alone. “Then we just went into the garden.”
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