Jan H. (46) from Oosterhout has to go to prison for twenty months for raping his stepdaughter. The court in Breda ruled this on Friday. He must also live in assisted living after his prison sentence and receive treatment.
In the summer of 2022, the daughter of his then girlfriend came to live with them and Jan got along very well with her. From friendship came expressions of love and lots of cuddling. Eventually the two had sex. However, he was well over forty and she was 12.
Jan deeply regrets having sex with his much-too-young stepdaughter, as became apparent during the hearing in the court in Breda. He doesn’t understand how it all got to this point. Probably the 12-year-old girl provided an opportunity to escape the bad relationship he had with her mother.
“I couldn’t guard my border,” he stated. “I still wonder why. I had little attention from my wife at that time. Perhaps I was looking for attention and security. But, actually, I don’t know.”
Alcohol abuse
His life does not sound like a happy story either: a picture was painted of alcohol abuse, domestic violence and a previous abuse case with an 11-year-old girl in 2008 or 2009. She was the daughter of Jan’s then wife.
When his new stepdaughter came to live with Jan and her mother in the summer of 2022, a relationship quickly blossomed between the two. They sent each other sweet messages and sat together on the couch all the time. They ended up having sex, but only when the girl’s mother wasn’t home.
Sexual hints
There was never any coercion, Jan stated, but the stepdaughter thinks very differently about that. She stated that she often shouted stop, but that Jan did not respond. It was probably confusing for Jan that the stepdaughter texted her stepfather many sexually suggestive hints. For example, they were often entangled together on the couch.
According to Jan, they only had sex two or three times, because he ‘also saw that it was not possible’. But, according to the stepdaughter, it happened at least twenty times in just over a year. The last time was in April this year. A week later, Safe at Home showed up on our doorstep and Jan has been stuck since the end of the summer.
Rated by experts
Jan has been examined by experts and they recommend a series of measures to prevent Jan from touching young girls again. The court took over all of these: assisted living, obligation to report to the probation service, treatment, alcohol control and a ban on contact with minors. He is also prohibited from having contact with his former stepdaughter for five years. If he makes the mistake again, he will go to jail for another ten months.
The public prosecutor had demanded a higher prison sentence: four years, of which one year was conditional.