News of: Monday, December 13 2010,
A child care worker in Amsterdam has admitted to abusing 30 to 50 children who were in his care. He is also suspected of creating child pornography.
The abuse took place over a period of about 2 years, with very small children of 4 years old and younger. Dutch authorities have launched a large scale investigation.
The accused person is the 27-year old Robert M., originally from Riga, Latvia, but a Dutch national since a few years.
The main suspect's husband was arrested on Friday on suspicion of the possesion of child pornography.
M.'s arrest took place on Tuesday, after a tip from the United States, where child pornography was found that apparently was produced in the Netherlands. The Dutch police say there might be an international child pornography network.
Already in 2008, a parent reported him to the police, after her son had told her that he had to undress for Robert M.
The parent says nobody believed her, neither the police, nor the Amsterdam department of health, nor the child care centre's management.
The police say that, at the time, they saw no reason for further investigation.
Robert M. worked in at least two day care centres in Amsterdam, and also offered baby-sitting services on the internet. Additionally, he did volunteer work for an orphanage in Africa, and he was busy setting up his own child care centre.
M. is a specialist in computer encryption, so he could very well protect the data on his computer. This made it very difficult for the police to find the child pornography on his computer.
The parents were briefed by the mayor of Amsterdam and the head of police, before a press conference about the case, that was broadcast live on tv, yesterday.
M.'s apartment in Amsterdam-West is now boarded up, and guarded by the police. As soon as the news came out, M's full name, address and phone number started to circulate on the internet.
