It caused quite a stir in Beverwijk when the police arrested a popular music teacher last summer because of alleged sexual abuse of three girls during music lessons. At one he would even have penetrated with his little finger. The lawsuit against the man is due today. He knows many losers in advance: from the alleged victims to the cautious music schools in Beverwijk and the emotional family, friends and acquaintances from musical circles who heard the accusations against the man with disbelief.
The latter group in particular was agitated during an earlier introductory session. About thirty men encouraged the suspect with loud applause upon entering the courtroom and upon his departure. They could also hardly keep their indignation to themselves when they heard the accusations. “It looks like a murder suspect,” one of them whispered to himself.
The alleged victims were much less well represented, but the prosecutor expressed how the alleged incidents still affect their lives after about 10 years: “The women still suffer from it, for example in sexual relations with their partner now.”
Dismayed
The officer finds the stories of the three different women more than credible: “The stories of the three women are similar and reinforce each other.”
The three say that the music teacher touched them several times on their breasts and thighs. He would also have kissed one of them on the neck. It would all have happened in their teens, between 2011 and 2017. The heaviest reproach is the intrusion with his little finger at one of them. Whether the women will be in court today to tell their story is not clear.
The Grote Kerk Association in Beverwijk does not want to say much more than that it is ‘dismayed about the reporting’ about the music teacher, whom they know from popular performances in the church. “You notice that there is social unrest about these kinds of things. But here we do not notice any extra caution among people as a result of the case.”
(Music) schools such as the Kennemer College, the Center for the Arts in Beverwijk, Cultuurhuis Heemskerk and IJmond Popschool also reacted with shock to the man’s arrest, but they were soon relieved to rule out that it was one of their teachers.
Large windows and the door was always open
The two latter music schools said they have strict rules that ‘make incidents like this unlikely’. “But the lessons in our building are often one-to-one, so we adhere to strict rules. Each classroom has large windows through which you can look in and out. And the teacher and student are never alone in the building.”
The lawyer of the accused music teacher also mentioned these things in court: “The girls have stated that the door was always open and a dog always walked in and out. They were taught in the living room, with large windows. The woman of the The suspect would have walked in regularly, for example with coffee.”
Rhythm tapping on upper leg
“But the suspect can also cross boundaries, of himself and of others,” the officer countered. “He has been overworked himself before and still sees no harm in a kiss on the shoulder, or a hand on a leg. That is worrying.”
According to the music teacher’s wife, he is therefore innocent. “Yes, he sometimes tapped the rhythm on someone’s thigh, but he didn’t do more than that,” she said outside the courtroom. She could hardly hold back her tears. “I’m devastated. I’m not working, our savings are running out. It’s wrecking me.”