The Dutch criminal court in Enschede sentenced a 28-year-old man from Enschede to 6 months prison for facilitating sexual exploitation of a 16-year-old girl. The man arranged payed sex appointments and a workplace. The police were notified thanks to Terre des Hommes.
On January 18, 2019, the police contacted the phone number listed on an online sex adverstisement. Researchers of Terre des Hommes found the advertisement suspicious and alerted the police. That same day, officers made a sex appointment with the girl. At the agreed time and place, she unsuspectingly stepped into the anonymous police car, after which it turned out that the girl indeed was underage.
The criminal pimp initially denied that he was the person who chatted with the girl. But her phone turned out to be registered on his name and the voice messages on the mobile device proved to be his, according to the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI).
The court found no convincing evidence that the girl was forced to have paid sex. Also was there not enough evidence to proof that the money that the criminal pimp received from the girl came from her activities of having paid sex.
But the court does not consider the defendant less punishable for this reason: Even if the minor girl would have wanted to work ‘as a sexworker’voluntarily, ‘it is precisely for minors to be protected from themselves and the consequences of working as a prostitute. At that moment they cannot oversee the consequences of such far-reaching choices'.
Terre des Hommes does research on online sex advertisement, using a software tool. Terre des Hommes is pleased with the verdict and the swift action of the police.