Labour alderman accused of sexting with girl, 14

Ger Lindeman resigned as PvdA alderman in Hoogezand because he was being blackmailed with sexually explicit texts with a 14-year-old girl. He calls it a "stupid mistake", the Volkskrant reports.  Lindeman initially only told the Hoogezand city council that he is forced to resign "for personal reasons". Only the mayor knew the whole truth. Now he came out with the truth, telling it to RTV Noord and Dagblad van het Noorden. According to the 45-year-old former alderman, he has a profile on dating site Badoo and he "sometimes chats with ladies. From my own age." Recently he was approached on the site by Eva. She asked that they rather chat on Facebook and Lindeman agreed. During the course of the conversation, Eva said that she was 14-years-old. At the time the conversation was still "very normal about everything and such", according to Lindeman. He therefore saw no reason to stop talking to her. Later the conversation started getting "increasingly sexual". Yet Lindeman still did not end it. "Incredibly dumb and stupid", he now calls that decision. Not much later he received a message that he had to pay 5 thousand euros or the chats will be made public. Lindeman did not pay any money. Instead he went to the mayor and resigned. According to him, the police haven't caught the extortionists yet.