More sextortion victims accuse Etten-Leur man suspected of tormenting 171 girls, women

A total of 26 girls and women have accused 24-year-old Gianni de W. from Etten-Leur of orchestrating a sextortion scheme that turned them into victims. He is suspected of having lured a total of 171 victims into sending nude photos of themselves in order to blackmail them.

The identities of 40 adult victims and 93 minor victims has now been established, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) stated in court in Breda on Friday. Police have yet to make contact with 16 of the child victims. Some of the victims come from Belgium, the OM said. Additionally, the police have not been able to determine the identities of 38 other victims.

De W. intends to cooperate cooperate with the interrogation for the time being, but he was not present in court on Friday. There were several victims in court. The court would like the suspect to be present at the next hearing, and can force him to attend, if necessary.

In January it was announced that the police had found 150 folders with different girls' names in his computer. Some of them sometimes contained thousands of images of a single victim. In recent months, the focus of vice detectives has been on assessing the footage and investigating the identity of the girls.

The man from Etten-Leur came into contact with his victims via social media. Under fake names such as Bryan.snapx, Bryansnelgeld, he allegedly offered the girls money for sending a nude photo. Then he threatened to distribute it online if they did not send even more images. This practice is known as sextortion.

"The impact of the sextortion on the victims is enormous. Some girls were mentally damaged by it," the prosecutor concluded earlier on the basis of the reports. According to the Public Prosecution Service, De W. also tricked nine close friends into send nude photos by using fake names. In addition, the suspect also allegedly asked one of his victims to have sex with her boyfriend and film it for him.

A large amount of child pornography material was also found on the man's computer, investigators claimed.

De W. has been detained since October 11. The next preparatory session is scheduled for October, with the trial expected to take place in February or March.