Within online Com groups, which means ‘the Community’, young perpetrators share extremely violent videos and encourage young people to injure themselves or others, according to the Public Prosecution Service (OM).
The 22-year-old suspect is said to have shared in various online chat groups that he has made several victims of so-called cutsigns or marks made in the skin with a sharp object.
He is also suspected of blackmail with nude images, or sextortion. The Hoofddorp resident is said to have forced young people with these images to carve his online username into their legs and breasts with a knife. There are actually images of such cutsigns found in chat groups on Telegram. According to the Public Prosecution Service, these were probably sent by the suspect.
Normalizing extreme violence
Radical online groups such as 764 and No Lives Matter pose a growing threat internationally, according to the Public Prosecution Service. The young members would normalize and glorify extreme violence. The aim is to put young people under such pressure that they commit (sexual) violence against themselves or random others or, for example, their pets, brothers and sisters.
Victims are encouraged by members of these online groups to film everything they do. These images are then distributed online by the perpetrators. This gives them more status and allows them to (further) extort victims. The goal is if they can persuade their victims, often young people in their early teens or even younger, to commit suicide or suicide. The members gain more prestige and status by sharing increasingly extreme material.
Complex
According to the Public Prosecution Service, the arrest of the 22-year-old man from Hoofddorp is ‘complex’ and the result of close cooperation between specialists from the Investigation and Interventions Unit (LO) in the field of terrorism, child pornography and cybercrime. The investigation is led by the National Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The investigation into the suspect is still ongoing. On October 28, the court chamber will further consider the pre-trial detention of the suspect.