The Voice coach Ali B. convicted of rape & attempted rape; Two years in prison
Dutch singer Ali B. was found guilty of raping a woman in 2018 during a songwriting retreat in Heiloo, and was acquitted on a charge of sexual assault regarding the same victim. The 42-year-old former The Voice of Holland coach was also convicted of the attempted rape of singer Ellen ten Dam when the two were shooting the music program, Ali B en de Muziekkaravaan, in Morocco in 2014.
The District Court in Haarlem sentenced B. to two years in prison after reading its verdict on Friday. He was also acquitted of raping Ten Dam, and he was acquitted of the sexual assault charges brought against him over an incident with another singer, Jill Helena. Ali B denied the women’s allegations, and his lawyer previously said that the rapper would appeal against any guilty verdict against him.
The Public Prosecution Service (OM) had demanded three years in prison against the 42-year-old rapper for two counts of rape and two counts of sexual assault against three women - Naomi, Ten Dam, and Helena, who was a former contestant on The Voice.
A large part of the rapper’s defense was questioning the reliability of the victims’ statements. The court considered all three victims’ statements reliable but said that there was not enough corroborating evidence to prove the two sexual assault cases.
Naomi said that Ali B attacked her during the writers’ camp in Heiloo in 2018. She was having sex with rapper Ronnie Flex, when Ali B allegedly began to grope her without permission. “I asked what he was doing and if he never heard of consent,” she said. Ali B then ridiculed her and continued to push to the extent that she eventually felt intimidated to give in and let him have his way. Ronnie Flex corroborated Naomi’s statement.
The court also took into account a witness who came forward saying she helped the young woman after finding her crying at a bus stop after the attack. That is enough to prove the rape, the court ruled.
Singer Ellen Ten Damme said that Ali B raped her in a hotel room in Morocco, where she was staying during recordings of the television program Ali B en de Muziekkaravaan. He came into her room and forced her to have sex with him, she said. She had told her manager and her boyfriend of the incident after it happened, both of whom corrobated her story. There was not enough evidence to prove rape, though the court did consider attempted rape proven.
Jill Helena said that Ali B, with whom she had an affair several years earlier after appearing on The Voice, took her to a deserted forest path in the Amsterdamse Bos after a performance in 2018. In the car, with no one else in sight, he coerced her into masturbating him, she said. The court considered Jill Helena’s statement credible but said there was not enough evidence to prove the assault allegation. Ali B was, therefore, acquitted of this charge.
The charges against Ali B are not connected to the television program The Voice of Holland, though his arrest did follow a BOOS broadcast revealing widespread sexually transgressive behavior on the program. Jill Helena did participate in The Voice in 2013, but the alleged sexual assault happened five years later.
