Suspected pimping at Gelderland care institute triggers parliamentary questions

A former group leader of youth care institution Hoenderloo Groep in Apeldoorn appeared in court on Monday on charges of forcing an underage girl at the institution into prostitution. The PvdA will ask parliamentary questions about this case, Omroep Gelderland reports.

Kacim D. is suspected of human trafficking and the exploitation of a then underage girl in 2014. According to the Public Prosecutor, he met the girl through is work as a group leader at the institution's schoolyard. He started a relationship with the girl and forced her into prostitution. D. was suspended from the institution due to a "private matter" in 2014, was revealed in court on Monday. He was acquitted of this "private matter".

The Hoenderloo Groep is an institution for children and teenagers with complex behavioral problems. The institution has multiple locations. Some of its clients live at these locations and also attend school there.

According to D.'s lawyer, there is no case against his client. The suspect indeed works as a pimp in prostitution, but in a legal manner and only started after 2014. The girl who accused the suspect also lived in a different location than the one where D. was working, the lawyer said. "The girl was in a closed ward where he never could have gone", according to the lawyer.

De Gelderlander recently reported about similar cases at youth institution Heldringstichting in Zetten and an institution in Oosterhout.

PvdA parliamentarian Atje Kuiken is shocked by these cases and will ask parliamentary questions about them. "These kinds of vulnerable girls or boys need to be safe in an institution where they are hospitalized. If that is not the case, it is of course unacceptable", Kuiken said to the broadcaster. "This is not the first time that such an institution, where the safety of girls could no longer be guaranteed, comes into the news. I want to know from the Minister what he will do about it, who will investigate and what we will do to prevent this. Because this can not be accepted."