Man gets 6 years for raping two girls in Schiedam; Identified through 3D hologram

The Rotterdam court sentenced 53-year-old Marcel B. to six years in prison for raping two girls, 13 and 15, in cellar boxes in Schiedam and Vlaardingen in 2010. The police arrested the man early last year after displaying a life-sized 3D hologram based on his description and then DNA testing possible matches.

The man allegedly attacked three girls in Schiedam and Vlaardingen in 2010. He followed the victims on his bicycle to their homes. He raped two of them in cellar boxes at knifepoint. The third managed to get away.

The court convicted the man of the two rapes but acquitted him of the third attempted assault. The sentence is, therefore, lower than the eight years in prison the Public Prosecution Service (OM) demanded.

The case remained unsolved for years until the police distributed a 3D rendering of the suspect based on a composite drawing from 2010. The life-sized hologram was placed in shopping centers in Schiedam and Vlaardingen and shown on investigation programs Bureau Rijnmond and Opsporing Verzocht.

The police received over 300 tips about the man’s possible identity. Later, the police approached dozens of men, asking if they’d provide a DNA sample. It resulted in a match with Marcel B., who also provided his DNA voluntarily. During the trial, he denied attacking the young teenagers.

“With his actions, he only paid attention to his own feelings of lust and did not care about the damage he caused to the minor victims,” the court ruled. It also criticized the man for keeping silent for all these years.