Dutch nursery paedophile 'has abused dozens'

A man who worked for at least two nursery schools is believed to have molested dozens of young children and used them to make child pornography in one of the worst cases of sexual abuse in the Netherlands.

Amsterdam mayor Eberhard van der Laan said more than 50 parents were informed yesterday that a 27-year-old suspect arrested last week had either confessed to abusing their children or was thought to have done so.

“This is about a serious suspicion of grave abuse by a man who was arrested Tuesday and has been held since then,” Mr Van der Laan said at a news conference with the city’s police commissioner and chief prosecutor.

“I see it as my most important job to inform parents as well as possible.”

The suspect was arrested on December 7 after a police television programme showed an image of a victim that US authorities had seized in a separate child porn investigation, police chief Herman Bolhaar said.

US law enforcement officials had informed Dutch authorities they believed the image had been manufactured in the Netherlands.

The victim’s parents identified their child from the image on television and called police, leading to the suspect’s arrest the same night, Mr Bolhaar said.

The man’s computers containing child pornography were seized and he had since confessed to dozens of sex crimes allegedly committed over the past year and a half, Mr Bolhaar said.

The man worked at at least two day care centres in Amsterdam and also offered his services online as a freelance babysitter.

The man was identified as a Dutch citizen originally from Riga, Latvia. His name was not released but police published his photo – an unusual step, as privacy laws usually prevent publication of photograhs of suspects in the Netherlands.

Mr Van der Laan said the photo had been released in part to reassure the thousands of parents in Amsterdam whose children were not affected.

But he said: “At the same time we want to alert others that it indeed was their babysitter.”

Prosecutors said yesterday they had also arrested the man’s 37-year-old partner on suspicion of possessing child pornography. The older man was not suspected of physically molesting children, they said.

A 39-year-old employee of one of the day care centres where the man worked was also arrested yesterday after allegedly attempting an “indecent” online chat, the prosecution statement said.

Mr Bolhaar said there may be more victims and more suspects.

A candle was left yesterday on the steps of Jenno’s Stuffed Animal Paradise, one of the day care centres affected. An attached note bore the single word: “terrible.”