Nursery teacher used dozens of pupils to make child pornography in one of worst abuse cases in Dutch history

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 12:55 PM on 13th December 2010

A nursery school teacher in Amsterdam has confessed to molesting more than 50 pupils, some of who were used to make child pornography, in one of the worst cases of sexual abuse in the history of the Netherlands.

The 27-year-old, who worked for at least two schools, was arrested last week after a U.S. investigation traced the origins of one image to the Netherlands.

When the image was shown on a Dutch TV police programme on Sunday the victim's parents recognised their child and called the police, leading to the man's arrest on the same night.

News conference: Amsterdam's authorities announced the arrest in a news conference on Sunday night

His 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.

'At this moment we do not precisely know how many children are the victims of this 27-year-old man,' said Amsterdam police chief Herman Bolhaar.

The parents of affected children aged up to four were informed at an Amsterdam hotel on Sunday night.

In a late night news conference with the city's police chiefs, Amsterdam mayor Eberhard van der Laan said: 'This is about a serious suspicion of grave abuse by a man who was arrested Tuesday and has been held since then.

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

The suspect worked at at least two day care centres in Amsterdam from February 2007 and also offered his services online as a freelance babysitter.

He 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, but he will appear in court on Monday.

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 one of the day care centres affected. An attached note bore the single word: 'terrible.'

The case comes just months after 60-year-old swimming teacher Benno Larue was sentenced in July to seven years in jail for the sexual abuse of 40 girls over a period of many years.

Most of the girls were very young and had learning difficulties.

From: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1338178/Nursery-teacher-confesses-using-pupils-make-child-pornography-Amsterdam.html