Four men were sentenced on Tuesday in Belgium to terms ranging from 5 to 16 years in prison in a large child pornography case. They were found guilty, in particular, of "incitement to child abuse, child abuse and trafficking in human beings". For a fifth defendant, a psychiatric examination was ordered to determine whether he should not be interned.
The investigation has already identified a total of 90 suspects and 110 young victims around the world. According to the Belgian federal police, this is "one of the biggest cases of sexual abuse of minors ever known".
The network involves 44 countries
The investigation had started in 2015 when a police officer noticed the strange attitude of a thirty-something Belgian taking photos of children in swimsuits on the beach in Blankenberge, in the north of the country. A search carried out at the home of this suspect in Wetteren made it possible to discover in a computer "about 15 terabits (TB) of files" of a child pornography nature, that is to say some nine million images.
In the space of five years, with the help of the European police agency Europol, the investigations have revealed a network of photo and video exchanges with ramifications in 44 countries. “These were images of abuse of babies as young as a few months old, and of adolescents aged 12 to 13. The child victims were mainly male, "said Belgian police.
"An exceptional trial"
Many suspects are still wanted, but some have already been tried and sentenced in several countries. In Australia a man was sentenced to fifteen years in prison.
In Belgium, the investigation started in 2015 led at the beginning of 2020 to the trial of five men before the criminal court of Dendermonde, in the north of the country: three Belgians (including the first suspect arrested on the beach), a Briton and a Dutchman .
The Child Focus association, which was a civil party, spoke of an “exceptional trial”, unprecedented since the association's creation in 1998, in the wake of the Marc Dutroux affair. According to the Belgian police, "international cooperation is continuing with a view to identifying as many victims and suspects as possible".
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