Meanwhile, nineteen reports Gianni de W., suspect in the largest online abuse investigation in the Netherlands | Interior

Today is a so-called pro forma hearing in the case, not yet substantive. Some of the victims of Gianni de W. are present. The 24-year-old De W. is not there. He has chosen to remain in his cell. This is the largest online abuse case ever in the Netherlands.

Gianni de W. has been detained since October 11, 2022, but the case only came to light in January during an equally non-substantive session. Then he was there. The public prosecutor then spoke of the largest investigation into online abuse of minors ever in the Netherlands.

There were soon eight reports against De W. plus several reports, but the investigation was and is still in full swing. The police still had to find out the identity of many dozens of girls in De W.’s folders.

The investigation started with a report from a girl from Noord-Holland who was 14 years old when the extortion started. That girl did her story against this site at the end of January. De W. made contact with her under the name Bryan. He said he was 15 years old. After handing over a first nude photo, he completely grabbed her and she had to send more. The victim from North Holland got into such a situation that she attempted suicide. In the end she managed to muster the strength to file a report, which was more than three years ago now.

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. Sextortion, this form of extortion is called. In his computer, the police found 150 folders with different girls’ names. In some folders, the police found thousands of images of the same victim. Gianni de W. used fake names online, such as Bryan.snapx and Bryansnelgeld.

ICT administrator Gianni de W. from Etten-Leur had already been caught in 2014 for internet extortion. At that time, no report was filed. The stop talk at the time could therefore not prevent him from going wrong again, and this time on a much larger scale.

De W.’s case is the largest of its kind in the Netherlands ever, as far as is known. Another very illustrious case from more than ten years ago is that of Aydin C. from Tilburg, who blackmailed 34 young girls and several gay men from home. That case received a lot of international attention because one of his victims, the Canadian teenager Amanta Todd, was under such pressure from C. that she committed suicide. C. was eventually sentenced to ten years in prison and eight months after an appeal at the end of 2018 and was then sentenced to another thirteen years in prison in Canada for extortion and intimidation of Amanda. C. is serving his sentence in the Netherlands.