René Van der Gijp (left) and Johan Derksen (central) — © BELGAIMAGE
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René van der Gijp (61) claps out of school about the ‘candle riot’, which the popular talk show Today Inside turned his neck last week. According to the icon, the anecdote that Johan Derksen told never really happened, not even in the later watered down form. “That story does not exist at all: the Public Prosecution Service is looking for someone who is not there.”
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the talk show Today Inside disappeared from the tube on Thursday, after persistent fuss about the story that football journalist Johan Derksen told on Tuesday. He allegedly put a candle between the legs of an unconscious woman in the 1960s. “Technically, a prosecutor can explain it as rape,” Derksen said at the time.
But according to René Van der Gijp, friend and colleague of Derksen, that story never really happened. “In the ‘underpants fun in canteens’ circuit I have already heard this story thirty times, in all kinds of renderings. Every time I thought: it’s just not true. The goalkeeper of Veendam (who, according to Derksen, was present, ed.) says it’s not true. So the Public Prosecution Service (which on Friday announced it was opening an investigation, ed.) goes looking for someone who isn’t there. I understand that people say: ‘This is not possible’. If only one percent of it were true, the whole country could roll over us. Anyway, I knew it wasn’t true, so I didn’t value it at all.” Why he didn’t tell me that his colleague was spouting nonsense, Van der Gijp says firmly: “That’s not up to me, but to Johan.”
Derksen weakened his story on Wednesday, but refused to apologize. That was not enough to silence the criticism. “Johan later twisted it and said that he was standing between her legs,” said Van der Gijp. “That was bad, but he did it because it’s just not true. And that was not convenient: you can no longer talk straight. You shouldn’t want that either. Let it blow over. He’s not going to admit it.”
“I have never seen Johan so excited in my life”
According to Van der Gijp, production house Talpa “also knew that the story was not true”. “But so much came over them,” said the football analyst. “From parliamentary questions to Sigrid Kaag. Then I can understand. I know they are panicking. And then they will give Johan a note to read, so that we can stay. I think that destroyed a lot in him.”
According to Van der Gijp, Derksen is deeply impressed by the fuss. “He has been put on hold by so many organisations, I have never seen Johan so excited in my life. I said: go for a walk with your dog, eat something other than brown sandwiches with cheese and go to a restaurant. I am concerned that he is now portrayed as such a pariah.”
ALSO READ. All his life with two feet ahead: by no means the first time that Johan Derksen caused a fuss
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