PHILIPSBURG--The court dealt with a shocking case on Thursday: a married man and his lover of eighteen years were on trial for repeatedly raping and assaulting four young girls. The children had told certified child sex crime investigators that they were given “something to smoke” and “a pill”, before they were groped and raped in the house of the married couple and their young daughter.
The prosecutor demanded 15 years in prison for the main suspect for rape and fornication, plus two years for illegal possession of a shotgun and 270 grams of marijuana found during a search on April 7, 2021. For his girlfriend, who is considered to be less accountable, in connection with the long-term complicated relationship with the man, 10 years in prison was demanded.
The four victims were all pupils of a primary school in Cay Hill. The case came to light in March last year after one of the girls told a teacher that she had been sexually abused. This had happened in 2015, when she was six years old.
At the age of 11 the child started talking about the abuse after a friend of her father groped her in December 2021. This was the trigger that exposed not only her tragic experiences, but also those of three other victims of the same alleged perpetrators; the former school secretary J.W., her lover of 18 years, former United Telecom Services (UTS) employee B.S. and his wife R.S.
The case against the suspects was handled separately. On Thursday morning, the man B.S. (52) stood trial, and in the afternoon, it was the turn of his 18-years-younger girlfriend who lives two doors down from him and his wife in Belvedere. The three would have had sex with each other and with the four young girls for years. Occasionally they would also have victimised very young boys.
“But he prefers girls, he loves young girls,” the former school secretary testified on Thursday afternoon about her lover, with whom she got involved at the tender age of 16. Now 34 years old, having spent 435 days in prison after her arrest on April 7, 2021, she finally admitted in court that she had brought pupils who came to her for tutoring to her lover’s house, knowing they would be molested.
S. also counted 435 days in prison on Thursday. He continues to deny that he had sex with the girls. Their mothers reported to the police of rape of minors, after the children told them that “Uncle” had penetrated them in the vagina and anus, that he had touched their buttocks and breasts, and that this happened either in his daughter’s bedroom or in the master bedroom. The children described this room as blue, with small bedside tables, a mega television screen and large sound boxes against the wall.
The criminal file contains a photo of the couple’s bedroom. “The walls are blue, the room looks like the children have described,” the judge said on Wednesday, while one of the victims and her mother sat in the public gallery in the courtroom as listeners. To their great dismay, the defendant’s wife was also there.
Although the woman R.S. is a suspect in the sex case called Pandora, it is not known whether she will be prosecuted. The prosecutor stated that he had not yet charged the mother, to prevent the couple’s child from having to miss both her parents at once.
The child’s bedroom was where much of the abuse began. The now-11-year-old girl who first testified about abuse by the child’s father stated that this had started at the age of six when she went with her older sister. The sister had been with the S. family for years, always when her mother had to work. When she was 13 years old, the man of the house had sex with her for the first time and at the age of 14 she also had sex with his wife, she said during interrogation by detectives.
More children stayed overnight in the bedroom of the couple’s daughter after tutoring, the sister testified. When her younger sister also stayed there, the father came into the room at night. “He put his private part in my vagina and my anus,” said the girl, who was six years old at the time.
On Thursday morning, the Prosecutor pointed out that penetration by the male genitalia is not required for the charge of rape. “Touching the clitoris with the tongue or finger and opening the labia large and small for that purpose results in sexual penetration,” the prosecutor said. Rape is understood to mean all sexual acts that precede, follow or are accompanied by intrusion. In addition, there must be coercion to be able to speak of rape.
In the present case, according to the Prosecutor, it is quite clear that there is coercion because the person who was responsible for the children at that time had imposed himself on the children. “In addition to the large age difference, there are the physical difference and the relationship of authority that lead to coercion.”
One of the girls testified that the school secretary had repeatedly performed oral sex on her. The woman denied this. Like her lover, she told the judge that she is the victim of a conspiracy. “The girls have a lot of imagination.”
During the interrogation of the youngest victim before the examining magistrate, it became clear that the girl was frightened and traumatised. This child stayed with the couple when the school secretary gave birth to a son, child of B.S. As both parents have been in prison since April 7, 2021, this child is growing up in a children’s home.
From the file and reports it follows that the man S. is a sexual predator, the Prosecutor concluded. The now suspect allegedly ordered his by-side to take pictures of young girls and send him the images of their vaginas and breasts. On the school secretary’s phone, photos of a nude girl were found that were taken in the school. Her school uniform was at her feet.
Lawyer Geert Hatzmann has joined the case pro bono on behalf of the four victims. He has filed the highest possible claim of NAf. 50,000 in damages for each of three victims, and NAf. 40,000 for the fourth victim.
The judge will rule on July 7, at 9:00am.
