A 65-year-old man from Eenrum has been sentenced to nine days in prison (seven conditionally), because he showed his genitals to two girls several times in the De Bonte Wever swimming pool in Assen. The 12-year-old friends were in the pool together on January 6, 2018 when they bumped into the man.
First they saw when they were diving that he took his genitals out of his swimming trunks underwater. Later, the man did it again, then above water, staring straight at them. The girls quickly went to another bath, but not much later the man was there too and it happened again. When they warned pool staff, the man ran off.
Two months later, the teenagers were there again and, to their horror, they ran into the man again. They immediately went to an employee of De Bonte Wever and when he went looking, it turned out that the man was gone again. When other swimming pool visitors reported at the end of October that a man was in the bath who showed his genitals, the Groninger was arrested. He was also recognized at that time from the images taken on March 12.
For the incident on October 25, the man was sentenced on appeal last year to a two-week suspended prison sentence and eighty hours of community service. The man has denied that he was the perpetrator and has appealed to the Supreme Court.
‘Swap of Persons’
In the case of the two girls, the man also denied that he was the pencil peddler during the lawsuit in Assen two weeks ago. He said it must have been a mistake of identity. But the court finds that there is enough evidence that he was indeed the perpetrator.
The man said that he was not in Assen that afternoon, because he had a job with his sewerage company. He tried to demonstrate this with, among other things, an invoice for that job. But because he made it himself afterwards, the court does not consider that enough proof that he was not there.
In addition, the girls have made detailed statements about the man, the court finds. They described him to the police as a man with a curved back and a striking pointed nose. The man has both.
Trauma
What he did could be damaging to the girls’ development, the court said. “The impact is apparent from the victim statement made by one of them during the session. These girls must be able to play and swim safely in a public swimming pool.” The girl who was at the trial is traumatized by what happened to her. The man from Eenrum has to pay her more than 500 euros in compensation.
The court would normally have sentenced the man to a longer prison sentence, but that is no longer possible, because he has already been convicted in the meantime for the incident that took place in October 2018. Shortly after his arrest, he has already served the two days that he has now unconditionally received. He doesn’t have to serve the week probation if he doesn’t make the mistake again.