A prison sentence of two years has been demanded for the sexual exploitation of a young woman against a 38-year-old man from Assen. According to the Public Prosecution Service (OM), a 35-year-old Assenaar made himself an accomplice by making his home available for this. Six months in prison was demanded against him, three months of which were suspended.
The case came to light early last year during a major investigation into human trafficking in the Northern Netherlands. In that case several women were heard about sexual exploitation. One of these women also filed a report against these two citizens of Assen. Both were in court on Wednesday for exploiting the woman.
The woman got to know the oldest suspect in Groningen in 2019 as a 26-year-old. They got into a relationship. The man had to go to jail for a while and both kept in touch. The woman had a drug problem and to pay for it she was in prostitution. She spent a short time in a clinic, but left there to move in with the Assenaar.
According to the prosecutor, the woman was exploited for nine months until June 2021. She ended the relationship herself. She decided to talk about this in February last year, when she was heard as a witness in the larger investigation into human trafficking. The reason she did this was the oldest suspect’s new girlfriend.
The Assenaar also exploited this woman, the woman believed. She saw the same thing happen to her as what had happened to her. She said that during the period with the man in Assen she was increasingly addicted to drugs. She had to serve about eight customers a day, which the Assenaar arranged for her. He also arranged the sex ads and drove her to the customers.
She was beaten by the man, once so hard that her eardrum ruptured. In the hospital, she was heard about this separately from the man. He had her completely in his power, she didn’t dare open her mouth. According to the public prosecutor, the Assenaar abused a vulnerable young woman who suffers from Asperger’s, autism and ADHD.
The woman’s story, according to the prosecutor, is supported by family and acquaintances of the woman, who stated that the suspect isolated her and abused her. The man only had an eye for his own sexual pleasure and the money he earned with her. As a loverboy, he led her to believe that he was as in love with her as she was with him.
The youngest Assenaar would also have been guilty of money laundering, originating from fraud via Marktplaats. He is also a suspect in the other human trafficking investigation. Both men vehemently deny all allegations. The declarant wanted all this herself, they said.
“I still love her,” the 38-year-old said of the victim. There is no evidence of this, the prosecutor said. In text conversations he expressed disdain for this woman. The prosecutor also demanded a restraining order against the victim. “I’m fine with it,” said the man.