Child abuse
Ex-radio presenter Sven Pichal (44) was already concerned with images of child abuse ten years ago. This is evident from research into its ‘digital carriers’. Police found 35 deleted images dating from 2014.
At the beginning of this month, it emerged that Sven Pichal snorted cocaine that he hid in his locker at the VRT. It was then also leaked that he had packages containing designer drugs delivered to Reyerslaan.
In the meantime, new information has emerged from the investigation. The police found around 160 images of child abuse on Pichal’s telephone and computer. As is known, these are hard, explicit images. The majority of the images found – photos and videos – date from last year. But it has become clear to investigators that he has deleted a number of images. The police were able to recover 35 of those images during the investigation. The remarkable thing is that the oldest ones date from the end of April 2014. This was confirmed to the Nieuwsblad. This means that he was already looking at images of child abuse ten years ago, and that it was therefore not just a recent phenomenon.
Sven Pichal spent several months in prison after being arrested in August 2023, but he has now returned home. He has now been freed from his ankle bracelet. The investigation showed that the former radio maker and VRT celebrity owned and distributed images of young abused children. He is not suspected of producing those images.
Bullchat
It is not known what Pichal told investigators about the recovered old images from ten years ago. The question is what his explanation is for this. After the search at his work on Reyerslaan, the police determined that Pichal had synthetic drugs, many 3MMC or a variant, delivered to the VRT in white envelopes and stored in his personal locker. The Antwerp public prosecutor’s office therefore also wants to prosecute him for possession of hard drugs.
He admitted to drug use. It would all fit into a larger problem: looking up images of child abuse late at night in a stupor of alcohol and drugs and sharing them with ‘like-minded people’. This happened via Bullchat, an online chat site for gay men where people look for extreme sexual fantasies.
The question now arises in what context he surfed for those images ten years ago. Walter Damen and Davina Simons, his lawyers, stated after his arrest that their client wanted to tackle “several issues”. That is why they looked so hard for appropriate guidance for him. Recently they have emphasized that Pichal strictly adheres to his imposed conditions. His lawyers are not happy about the fact that information is being leaked from the judicial investigation. “The research has not yet been completed, so no statement can yet be made about the period or the images,” say Walter Damen and Davina Simons.
Sven Pichal must appear before the council chamber in Antwerp on March 18. The public prosecutor’s office – which does not want to respond today – will normally ask to refer him to the criminal court.
If there is a lawsuit, Child Focus will in any case take legal action. They also do not wish to respond on Thursday.
