Former football coach faces 7-years jail over sex abuse, hidden recordings of 500 boys
Dutch prosecutors recommended a seven-year prison sentence and a ten-year professional ban for Robin J., a 40-year-old former football coach and teacher from Vlissingen. He has confessed to covertly filming hundreds of young footballers in showers over the course of 15 years and sexually abusing a former student, Omroep Zeeland reports.
Investigators discovered storage devices at the suspect’s home containing 27,000 photographs and 2,700 videos. According to prosecutors, the material had been meticulously organised on his computer into folders sorted by football club, team, and year.
The victims are 500 to 600 naked boys between the ages of 9 and 16. The footage was recorded between 2010 and 2025.
J. worked in Zeeland’s amateur football as a coach, goalkeeping trainer, and scout. The covert recordings were made in the dressing rooms of Jeugd Voetbal Opleiding Zeeland (JVOZ), VV Kloetinge, and SV Walcheren.
He was able to secretly record for years, including during and after showers, using a special app on his mobile phone that concealed the fact that the camera or recording function was active. Even after being confronted once by a team manager, he kept going.
Alongside his work as a football coach, J. was also employed as a primary school teacher in Halsteren, Noord-Brabant, according to NOS. In Year 8, he taught a minor student with whom he developed a close relationship of trust.
The abuse originated during a vacation on Texel, where J. covertly recorded the boy in the shower. The suspect went on to systematically abuse the teenager during weekend sleepovers in Vlissingen.
The case emerged in spring 2025 after the boy told his parents about the abuse two years later, prompting them to report it to the police. A subsequent search of the suspect’s home led investigators to uncover a large collection of footage taken in changing rooms.
At the hearing in the Middelburg court, J. acknowledged that he has been aware since his 20s of having pedosexual feelings. The Public Prosecution Service criticised him for continuing, despite this, to pursue roles in education and sport that placed him close to children. Prosecutors described his actions as “revolting” and characterised him as a predator in the changing room.
The suspect said he created the recordings for his own use. Police investigations found no indication that the material had been uploaded or shared on the internet.
The Public Prosecution Service is seeking a seven-year prison term, a ten-year ban from working in education and sport, and a behavioural intervention measure (GML) involving long-term supervision and treatment after release.
The defense has argued for a reduced sentence, pointing to J.’s cooperation with psychological treatment and compensation payments. The court will deliver its judgment on 2 June 2026.
