A convicted Dutch child abuser who tried to set up an orphanage in the Philippines has been sentenced to life in prison.
The 70-year-old from Amsterdam, identified only as Joep M, was convicted in the Philippines for sexually abusing his stepdaughters, aged 10 and 14, Amsterdam police announced on Facebook this week.
Joep M was arrested in September 2015, following a tip-off from Amsterdam sex crime detectives. He was convicted and sentenced in April, but this was not made public until the Amsterdam police’s Facebook post. It is not clear where he had been living or what court dealt with his case.
Previously, in 2006, he was sentenced to four-and-a-half years for sexually abusing a number of mentally and physically disabled children in the Netherlands.
After he was released just two years later, he tried to open a child care facility. However, Dutch police were able to prevent this.
Two Amsterdam sex crime detectives continued to monitor Joep M, due to concerns that he would reoffend. However, in 2010 he fell of the force’s radar.
Dutch detectives ‘pleased’
In 2012 Dutch police finally managed to track him down, after he placed an online advert looking for a Philippine woman of about 25 years old, preferably with children. His post stated that he wanted to open an orphanage with a suitable candidate.
At about the same time, a tip-off led the Dutch police to a website on which Joep M was offering his services as a daycare provider.
“Joep and defenceless children, you understand why alarm bells went off with the detectives”, the police wrote on Facebook.
“Doing nothing was of course not an option for us.”
The officers passed on the information about Joep M to the Philippine authorities, leading to his arrest and trial.
The detectives added that they were very pleased with the verdict. “Wherever in the world, in collaboration we do the best we can so that men like Joep M do not escape the dance”, they said.
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