Ruud and Peter were 7 years old when they were raped in 1999. On Tuesday morning they had come to the court in Breda to look the man in the eye who did this to them. For 24 long years, both men, now in their thirties, have struggled with that horrific event. “I’ve been looking for you for years.”
Ruud and Peter are not their real names. Both wish to remain anonymous. Their names are known to the editors.
They were boys of 7 in 1999. Now they are strong, tough thirty-somethings. After all these years, they finally see the man who made their lives hell. Although they are a long way from Bram L. (45), they have not been this close since 1999. And there is no doubt: this is him.
For decades they have not told anything to their environment and Ruud and Peter acted as if nothing was wrong. But meanwhile the anger, frustration and shame ate at them and they functioned anything but well.
Peter hasn’t seen his parents for ten years. He had to leave home when he was 18 because he could no longer be handled. Ruud suffered a huge study delay. And so there are countless indications that the men have suffered for 24 years to this day from the rape in 1999: fear, grief and post-traumatic stress disorder.
‘Must stop’
But that has to stop, they both thought. At the end of 2020, they went to the vice squad to finally tell their story. And those statements led to Bram L., a neighbor at the time in the Haagse Beemden in Breda. Then he was 22 and now almost 46.
Bram did not know the boys when he approached them in the fall of 1999 near a piece of wood. He said he wanted to show them his tree house. The curiosity about that impressive structure led to the nightmare that the men are still in to this day.
The then 22-year-old Bram grabbed a knife, grabbed one of the boys and forced him to take his penis in his mouth. He would have done that to both boys, according to them, but Bram strongly denied the second rape during the hearing.
After the rape, the boys ran. The disgust at what happened was evident when they both exercised their right to speak:
“We’ve been looking for you for years.
You deliberately lured us.
We were terrified, crying and retching children, but you only thought about your own comfort.
You were going to kill us if we talked and our parents too.
We called you pig nose.
Agony has dulled us.
A rotten duck is less dirty than your penis.
We don’t have a life sentence, but we do have 25 years.
Take that madness from me. I am going on.”
Life in order
The unique thing about the case is that these facts took place 24 years ago. Ruud and Peter are now adults and have their lives in order. Now that they finally know who their rapist is, they also see what kind of man he is.
Bram L. was also suspected of sexual abuse in 1999 and 2001, but has not yet been convicted. In 2002 he was caught for two fornication cases in the Northern Netherlands, for which he received a year in prison and TBS. From 2004 he was treated for his disorders. He is a pedophile, is mentally disabled and has autism.
Since he finished his TBS treatment in 2011, he has been living under supervision at the Amarant care institution in Tilburg. There he receives an injection every four weeks to curb his sexual urges and is under constant supervision.
Strict conditions
All parties agreed that it was best to stay that way. Ruud and Peter want Bram to never make victims again and the public prosecutor and Bram’s lawyer also agreed: Bram must remain under the same strict conditions under supervision at Amarant. Putting him in jail or starting a care process elsewhere would not be good for anyone.
The public prosecutor therefore only demanded a suspended sentence of four months, should Bram L. go wrong again. But, given the strict regime under which he has lived for the last 20 years, that seems very difficult.
For Ruud and Peter, the lawsuit against Bram is the biggest step in their lives. Bram apologized in his last word and said he was deeply ashamed of what he had done. And Ruud and Peter did well, their lawyer said afterwards.
The heated tempers, as with the right to speak, seemed to have subsided somewhat at the end. Ruud and Peter can now close the case. When the verdict is passed on August 1, they can really move on with their lives.