Ruinerwold

Gerrit Jan van D. regularly beat and abused his children in the around nine years they were kept secluded on a farm in Ruinerwold, according to accounts of how he drove "evil spirits" out of them that he wrote down himself and testimony the children gave the police. In some of those "exorcisms" Van D. used his "spiritual sword", the Telegraaf reports based on those accounts, which are described in the book Spookhoeve Ruinerwold set to publish later this week.

DNA tests confirmed that 67-year-old Gerrit Jan van D. is the father of the children found living with him in a hidden space on a farm in Ruinerwold in October. The man is also suspected of sexually abusing two of his three oldest children, who had already left home when the family withdrew from the society nine years ago, the Public Prosecutor said on Thursday.

Online friends of Gerrit Jan van D. are shocked by the accusations that he kept his children trapped on a farm in Ruinerwold for nine years. They describe him as a nice man who was "good to his children" to newspaper AD. The Telegraaf found - now deleted - posts on Facebook and LinkedIn that indicate that son Jan visited Canada in 2015 and earlier this year, indicating that he maybe was not being held captive, according to the newspaper.

Gerrit Jan van D., a man found living with six of his children in a hidden space on a farm in Ruinerwold last week, recorded a series of religious videos in 2006. In these videos he speaks of a spiritual war that is not quite over, but that god declared  to be 'won'. The Telegraaf discovered these videos and posted excerpts on its site.

The family of Gerrit Jan van D., the father who was found living in a hidden room on a farm in Ruinerwold with six of his children, is dismayed by the events surrounding Van D., they said in a statement to RTL Nieuws. They haven't had contact with Van D. since the 1980s and had no idea what he was up to. "The father of G.J. is demented and stays in a closed institution."

Josef B. was remanded into custody by a magistrate on Thursday for at least another 14 days while an investigation continues into the family found living in a hidden room on his farm. The man is suspected of depriving a man and his six now-adult children of their physical freedom for nearly a decade, and causing harm to their health, according to the prosecutor's office in Noord-Nederland.

The tenant of a farm where a family was found concealed is suspected of depriving people of their physical freedom, and harming the health of others, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) said on Wednesday. The suspect is reportedly 58-year-old Austrian man Josef B., according to multiple published reports.

The police discovered a father living with his six children in an 'end of times' bunker on a farm in Ruinerwold. The family, who hasn't seen the outside world for years, was discovered after the oldest son managed to get away on Sunday and went to a local pub for help, RTV Drenthe reports.