The youth care services have failed in all areas to protect a 14-year-old girl from Amsterdam. Her father shot her dead late last year. An investigation into the drama was published today, which was carried out on behalf of mayor Halsema and alderman Kukenheim.
On December 28 last year, two bodies found in a house in Amsterdam-East. It turned out to be a 14-year-old girl and her father. The 52-year-old man had first shot his daughter and then himself.
Former juvenile judge and National Rapporteur on Human Trafficking and Sexual Violence against Children Corinne Dettmeijer-Vermeulen states in the report that the system has failed, but that the various care providers could not have prevented a fatal outcome.
‘Insufficient trust between key players’
The researcher is critical of, among others, the Parent Child Team (OKT), Safe at Home, the Amsterdam District Court, the Child Protection Board and the Youth Protection. She states that “there was a lack of sufficient institutional trust between the main players involved in youth care in the municipality of Amsterdam, which has hindered the provision of care”.
According to the researcher, the institutions also did not have enough expertise in-house and care providers were busy time and again for far too long.
It was only five days before her death that the girl had been placed under surveillance following a juvenile court ruling, after months of worrying about her situation. For example, she hardly went to school and was isolated from her mother and other adults. There were also serious signs of loverboy problems. “Father held an open house for a group of boys who were significantly older than the youth,” the report said.
According to Dettmeijer, a year earlier it had been justified to put the girl under supervision and to place her out of the house, while a few months later the judge gave the teenager permission to live completely with her father.
Also criticism of court
The researcher also condemns that the father had “actually taken control of the assistance due to his refusal to cooperate”. According to her, he was able to do this because “direction in the assistance was lacking”. In addition, the mother expressed her concerns about the father to the police in 2016. He is said to have suicidal tendencies, drink excessive amounts of alcohol and have a drug addiction. She experienced the assistance mainly as “doing nothing” and “waiting”.
In addition to the assistance, Dettmeijer also looked at the judicial process. During one of the proceedings, the victim wrote a so-called child letter, in which she asked the Amsterdam court to change her primary residence from her mother’s address to her father’s.
The judge agreed to this, without a hearing having taken place. According to the investigator, the court made a mistake with this informal procedure and the court not only incorrectly applied the law but also violated the rights of the mother.
Hard laughter
In a response, the Amsterdam District Court denies that the law was violated during the procedure with the child letter. “The judge has also heard the parties involved in these proceedings, carefully weighed the interests and decided what was in the interest of the minor at that time.”
The court sees the criticism in the report as a recommendation to arrive at unambiguous policy nationally. “We are looking into the circumstances under which a child letter should lead to a formal hearing.”
Mayor Halsema and care alderman Kukenheim call the events “a horrific drama” in a letter to the city council. They realize that the report is “a hard blow to the individual first responders who were unable to prevent this drama despite their efforts”.
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