They were in love with each other, but they were way too different. He was a janitor at a special education school in Helmond and she was a student. He was in his fifties and she was only fourteen. He was dominant and she was dependent. They had daily contact and that soon led to sexual acts. And that is why the caretaker was given 2.5 years in prison by the court in Den Bosch on Thursday.
AS (56) from Helmond cried continuously during the hearing and was occasionally barely audible due to his emotions. Because, how stupid he had been to establish such a far-reaching friendship with a student from his school.
He was the spider in the web at school and stood in the middle of the students. The fourteen year old girl looked up to him and fell in love with him. She called him her soulmate and second daddy, and she couldn’t live without his help. After cuddling in a room, it quickly turned into daily messages and an appointment was made at the caretaker’s home. That was to give free guitar lessons, but little came of that.
WhatsApp
The court ruled that WhatsApp messages between the concierge and the girl showed that he was very manipulative. He seriously abused his power relationship with the dependent victim. The man knew that the girl was vulnerable, that she had problems and that she felt safe with him. She could talk to him about things that she could not talk about at home. Despite this knowledge, he sexually abused the girl for almost two years, during which he also sexually penetrated her several times.
The girl was afraid of losing the man and so their relationship became increasingly lopsided. Until a year ago, when she was sixteen, she had enough. She told her whole story to her doctor and Safe at Home and that’s how the police got involved. AS was arrested and spent two weeks in jail.
Infatuation
What is special in this case is that the suspect admits everything. Research shows that he is not a pedophile or has any other sexual disorder. It seems that it was an exceptional crush between a young girl (14 – 16) and a much older man, which went way too far.
When determining the sentence, the court took into account that the suspect had not previously been convicted, that he admitted the abuse, cooperated in the investigation and that he has now been dismissed by the school. The court also takes some account of the suspect’s sincere-appearing remorseful attitude.
In addition to a prison sentence of 2.5 years, the man was also ordered to pay compensation of 10,000 euros to the victim.