The appeal in the case of Thijs Römer is due on April 18. A spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service confirmed this after reporting from RTL Boulevard.
The actor was convicted in August in the court in Assen for online sexual offenses with three underage girls. One of them comes from North Drenthe.
The 45-year-old actor received a prison sentence of three months, of which two months were conditional. The court also imposed the maximum community service sentence of 240 hours on him. Furthermore, Römer must seek treatment at a mental health institution.
The court found it proven that the actor was guilty of criminally unacceptable sexual behavior. He tempted the girls online to commit lewd acts on themselves and send nude photos. That happened between November 2015 and November 2017 when the girls were 14, 15 and 16 years old.
Römer appealed against the sentence because he did not recognize himself sufficiently “in the image that emerges from the verdict”, he said through his lawyer.
“I cannot and do not want to justify what happened,” the actor said. “I made mistakes in my online contact at the time. I am well aware of that. I think it is terrible that they suffered as a result and I am very sorry. The appeal is not intended to detract from that suffering. I would have liked to want to accept the judge’s ruling, but I do not recognize enough of the image that emerges from the verdict.”
The Public Prosecution Service also appealed. This was mainly due to the acquittal “for count 2 – unexpectedly sending a nude photo – and not the sentence imposed by the court”, a spokesman said.