Our court reporter Saskia Belleman follows the case live. Her tweets are at the bottom of this post.
He didn’t do it during working hours, did he? The sex only took place during his lunch break. So that was private, Hans K.
The women thought very differently. They felt pressured and threatened. Hans K. did not subtly let them know that there was a threat of eviction and seizure of their belongings if they did not agree to the sex. He could prevent all that.
In addition to debt, most victims had many more problems: with exes, youth care, etc. They did not feel strong enough to defend themselves against Hans K..
A woman who initially did receive a text from him: “I am very sorry that you do not want to hear or see me anymore. That’s why you took your rabbit hostage.”
Between 2001 and 2016 Hans K. was able to go about his business undisturbed. There were occasional complaints about him, but for some reason that never resulted in an end to his practices. Until Alberto Stegeman exposed him in 2017 with his Undercover program when he offered a woman a “modern friendship”: “No crazy things. Just, I’m going to spoil you”, said Hans K. while he put 100 euros on the table.
At least eleven women came forward after the broadcast. This week Hans K. has to answer for three cases of rape, assault and bribery in Roermond. Blame he doesn’t understand. “I thought of myself as a very social bailiff. I don’t think I’ve ever done anything wrong,” he told the court. He denied that he pressured the women to pay off their debts in kind. And also that he threatened evictions or confiscation of their belongings. He only had sex with women he clicked with. And he paid them for it. “They had to know for themselves what to do with that money. Do errands, or pay off debts.”
Why didn’t he go to a sex club if he wanted to satisfy his needs? Hans K.: „I never went there. Never. You don’t know who went before you. I wanted a girlfriend of my own.” The women also liked it themselves, claimed Hans K.
‘degrading’
His victims think otherwise. “I found it disgraceful,” said one. “I never thought that someone in such a high position would do something like this.” They had to be “open-minded,” Hans K. told the women he showed up with his writs and subpoenas. “There was no escape,” said one victim. And another: “Everyone is afraid of the bailiff.”
He cornered one of the women and groped when she said she didn’t feel like having sex “with such a dirty old man.” Hans K.: „I must have been scribbling something. She was quite verbally active and that’s how you act.” With a head danger to her crawling children, Hans K. said significant: „Nice, isn’t it, those children? They can’t talk yet.”
Hans K. will hear this afternoon what punishment the Public Prosecution Service has in store for him.
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