Prosecutors: No criminal charges filed against website Motherless for sex abuse content

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) says its investigation into the porn site Motherless is centred on the origin of the material rather than the hosting provider that facilitated its distribution. Earlier on Wednesday, it emerged that the site had returned online, after being taken offline at the start of May following the discovery of around 20,000 videos allegedly showing women being abused in their sleep.

The website is run by a company based in Steenbergen, Noord-Brabant. As part of the ongoing investigation, the OM ordered the hosting provider to surrender both the drives and copies of the servers on which the site was stored to the police. “As a result, the website went offline that same evening. We are aware that it has since returned online,” the OM said.

The OM says that distributing such footage, involving women being abused or secretly recorded, is not criminalised in the Netherlands, as is also the case in many other countries.

The investigation instead focuses “specifically on identifying the perpetrators who carry out sexual acts on and with these unconscious women,” according to a statement. The OM adds that sex with an unconscious person qualifies as rape.

The OM says a complicating factor in the investigation is that a significant portion of the recordings may have been made outside the Netherlands, making the case extensive and complex.

NOS, which reported on the case earlier on Wednesday, says the website has claimed it has strengthened its moderation. According to the platform, additional reporting systems have been introduced to ensure illegal content is detected and removed more quickly.

In March, CNN reported that it had discovered videos on the site showing drugged women being abused while asleep. The investigation was prompted by the abuse case of French woman Gisèle Pelicot.