Child Pornography Ring
The Dutch courts are inquisitorial, being based on the
Napoleonic code. Judges conduct an inquiry, which in
practice means that the commissioners of the court act for the
judges, and in turn the police act for the commissioners.
The police conduct the investigation, interviewing people and
preparing depositions. These documents are placed in a
police dossier and handed to the court as evidence. The
material from the police and other documents becomes the so called
"crime-dossier" (Strafdossier). Witnesses usually
do not appear in court. Witnesses may also be interviewed by
court-appointed experts other than the police or the commissioner
of the court, if the judges see fit. These interviews are
also written up as depositions or as reports, and put into the
crime-dossier. The documents which find their way into the
crime-dossier are called "pieces of evidence." The
judges read the dossier and make a decision, often without even
seeing the people concerned.
Dutch accused do not have the right to confront their accusers
unless the judges decide to grant it. Evidence in the form
of statements may be anonymous. Hearsay is permitted and may
make up the totality of the evidence in a dossier. The
accused does not necessarily have the right to see all the items
in the dossier or to appoint contra-expertise. In a sense
everything in a dossier is hearsay since the dossier is comprised
of documents prepared by police and other court-appointed experts
claiming that the witnesses said certain things. This system
is wide open to abuse. Many people in the Netherlands are
sentenced as a result of dubious police practices and in the
absence of satisfactory evidence of the alleged crimes. We
are hoping that the the unification of Europe, which implies
common legal standards, will result in the European Appeal Court
rejecting judgments made in the Dutch system. This may force
reform of the system.
In this case we were able to get a photocopy of the entire
police dossier. The following analysis paraphrases the
statements of the children as reported by the police.
Below is an analysis of all the statements in the police
dossier made against Fred V., Anton and Ferdinand, including a
summary analysis of the way in which the boys describe their
relationship with the accused.
There were 20 different children, 19 boys
and 1 girl. The children are indicated with numbers in
column 1; their age at the time of making the statement, column 2;
the age range during the time of their contact with the accused,* 202
column 3; the way in which the boys describe the relationship (+
is positive, - is negative and 0 is neutral),* 203
column 4; and a short summary of the statement made by the boys,
column 5.
[* 202] "16" includes 16 years and after.
[* 203] Positive scores were only given if the
statements of the boys were unambiguously positive. Any
evidence of equivocation resulted in a neutral score. From
the remaining statements, any element of negative reaction
resulted in a negative score, even if neutral or positive elements
were present.
Statements Made About Fred V.
