DEN BOSCH - Former Heerlen resident Marcel T.(44) has been acquitted on appeal of lewdness with a minor. This happened yesterday at the court of appeal in Den Bosch. He was also acquitted of rape and threatening. T. was convicted for child pornography and weapons possession.Justice demanded five years against T. two weeks ago forsexual acts with a minor, rape and threatening with a weapon. This was two years less than the demand at the Maastricht court. Reason: in Den Bosch, the attorney general dropped one charge, about lewdness with a 16-year-old boy. On further consideration, the court found that it had not been sufficiently legally and convincingly proven that T. had abused the sixteen-year-old. During the hearing, T. admitted that he had been in the same bed with an 11-year-old boy. But he denied the lewd acts and also the rape of an 18-year-old. Asked by the judge why T. had not gone to another room when the boy did not want to go to his own bed, T. said that he indeed could have done better.
MayorJos Som of Kerkrade has notified the police in response to the problems T. has had in his previous residences of Heerlen and Landgraaf. After the Maastricht court acquitted T. in 2007, his caravan in Heerlen was set on fire. And when he moved to Landgraaf last year, the windows of his home here were repeatedly smashed. Also, until yesterday afternoon, his name and photo were on the anti-pedosite dutchpredators. Comments on the site stopkinderseks.com state that T. will still "pay for what he has done. "Because of this, I just know that all kinds of things will happen again. That's why I would like a conversation with the police and the mayor," T. said yesterday. His lawyer, Serge Weening of Maastricht, added: "If six judges acquit someone, surely society should leave that person alone." But on the Internet yesterday, T. was still condemned in reactions to his acquittal. "I roll off my chair in amazement," said Yvonne van Hertum, in a reaction to the verdict.
The spokeswoman for Stopkinderseks.com, known nationwide as a pedo-hunter, said she has followed the Marcel T. case closely. "And that's why I don't understand anything about this decision. Apparently, the judge feels that the 11-year-old boy's statement does not count in this trial. It seems like judges are getting more and more compassionate towards pedophiles. Today a pedo was acquitted elsewhere in the country as well. This is a black day for victims of sexual abuse." Van Hertum does say she sent an e-mail to the owner of dutchpredators.org, requesting that Marcel T.'s profile be removed. "Because I don't feel like a lawsuit." Whether the Justice Department will appeal the court's ruling was not yet known yesterday.
