Pro-Pedophilia activist Ad van den Berg dead at age 78

The former chair of an association that promoted legalizing pedophilia has died at the age of 78. Ad van den Berg, who himself was convicted of sexually abusing an 11-year-old boy and later on child pornography charges, helped launch the PNVD political party and was the chair of Martijn from 2010.

Van den Berg was very ill for a long time before his death this week, NH Nieuws said.

In 1987, Van den Berg was convicted of the sexual abuse charge for which he was sentenced to a short suspended prison sentence and a fine of 1,000 guilders, roughly equivalent to 900 euros today. He was again investigated for child pornography in 2010 and 2011, with detectives finding tens of thousands of pornographic photos and videos that involved children. Some of the material reportedly featured Van den Berg as well, according to the Noordhollands Dagblad.

He was convicted in 2011 and sentenced to three years in prison, including six months on probation. An appeals court disagreed with the district court's evaluation of the evidence, and reduced the sentence to two years in prison. He was again convicted on child pornography charges in 2020 and sentenced to two more years in prison. Soon after his release, police visited his apartment in Haarlem and again found child pornography, however Van den Berg argued that was material that had been in the apartment before his incarceration.

After his first conviction, Van den Berg began advocating for the legalization of sexual relationships with children. He eventually took a leadership position with PNVD, which advocated not only for allowing adults to have sexual contact with children from the age of 12, but also for bestiality, necrophelia, the possession of child pornography, and lowering the age someone can begin sex work to the age of 16.

The political party was eventually disbanded in 2010 after they failed to wind up on the ballet in successive Tweede Kamer elections. After the party disappeared, the group Martijn was launched with Van den Berg as chair. He was forced out as the group's leader after his 2011 conviction.

Prosecutors went to court to call for a ban of the Martijn group, which made its way through the Dutch court system until the Supreme Court eventually said the group was a threat to the public. The Court said in its verdict that the association poses a danger by creating more opportunity for sexually abusing or assaulting children.