Amsterdam, The Netherlands (June 17, 2009) - According to Earth Times, 59-year-old Benno Larue, a Dutch special-needs swimming teacher, has been arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing at least 98 girls with intellectual disabilities and other special needs. He was arrested on June 8 after police confiscated tens of thousands of pornographic photographs and video footage of "hundreds of girls" aged 6 to 16. From the article:
"We have confiscated tens of thousands of pornographic pictures and video footage of hundreds of girls," a spokesman of the police in Den Bosch in the southern Netherlands told the German Press Agency dpa.
"The pictures show the swimming teacher performing sexual acts on at least 98 girls, aged 6 to 16," he added.
Given the obvious difficulties in interviewing the special-needs children, due to their disabilities, estimates of the number of potential victims have ranged to possibly over 1,000.
Two girls have so far been identified. Police said that so far it appears all girls had been the victims of assault, not rape.
Larue taught in several swimming pools in Den Bosch and three nearby towns and villages.
According to the report, Larue had been under police investigation five years ago on suspicion of sexual abuse but a police investigation did not lead anywhere. More than 100 police detectives are now working on what "appears to be the largest sexual abuse case in the Netherlands in decades." Larue remains in police custody pending the investigation.
The full article is here.
