Man allegedly used nude images to blackmail over 100 girls; Largest Dutch online abuse case

A 24-year-old man from Etten-Leur is suspected of extorting more than a hundred underage girls. He seduced them, and tricked them into sending nude photos, and then used the photos to blackmail them, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) announced on Thursday in a Breda courtroom.

The prosecutors said it was the largest investigation ever conducted in the Netherlands into the abuse of minors online. The suspect, Gianni de W., used social media to approach his victims, the OM said. He contacted them using a false name, including Bryan.snapx, Bryansnelgeld and other variants in which the alias "Bryan" was used.

The police found 150 folders with different girls' names on his computer, the OM said. Some subfolders sometimes contained thousands of images of a particular victim, according to the public prosecutor. "He has made the lives of his victims hell," the prosecutor said.

The police are nowhere near finished with the investigation. The identities of dozens of underage girls have yet to be determined. The victims are mostly minors and live all over the country. The investigation started with a report from a girl from Noord-Holland who was 15 when she was blackmailed, the OM said.

The OM said it was actually a case of sextortion, which is considered to be extortion involving sexually suggestive photos or videos of the victim. More sexually explicit photos or videos are then demanded of them as part of the extortion process. The suspect also allegedly asked one of his victims to have sex with her boyfriend and film it for him.

The sextortion had a huge impact on the victims, the prosecutor said. One of his victims was only 13 years old. "She reacted in panic, fearful and emotionally. This worsened her relationship with her mother, who has since passed away," said the OM.

The identities of several dozen victims have so far been determined. Eight girls have now filed a report pressing charges against the man, but the police and the Public Prosecution Service expect this number to rise considerably. The suspect was arrested on October 11 and has been in custody ever since. He was remanded into custody on Thursday for an additional three months of pre-trial detention while the case is investigated further, the court decided. A large amount of pornographic material involving children was found on W.'s computer.

Any victims who recognize the usernames, or the suspect's methods, "can contact the local police in the area," said the OM.