Telegraph. Four former residents of the Gelderland 'youth village' De Glind for vulnerable children have reported long-term sexual abuse and mistreatment by a former foster parent. This allegedly took place in the late 1980s.
This is confirmed by their lawyer Jordi L'Homme. For decades there have been rumors of abuse and humiliation by several caregivers in the care village. Victims and witnesses reported them to various agencies and the police. The three women and a man aged 39 to 47 were five to 10 years old when they stayed there. Foster parent C.W. allegedly systematically abused and humiliated them. L'Homme calls it appalling that the children once again ended up "in hell. C.W. has not yet responded.
Youth village De Glind 'A safe haven'
A safe haven for parentless or vulnerable children from problem families. That was the idea behind De Glind youth village in Gelderland when it was founded in 1911. But since the early 1990s there have been signs of widespread abuse. Now there are finally four concrete reports. What secret does this 'safe' haven harbor?The village lies in the heart of the 'Biblebelt,' between Woudenberg and Barneveld. About 650 people live there, many in large houses with four to eight children. Most are therefore not ordinary houses, but "family homes," as Youth Village De Glind calls them.Currently, 24 of these types of homes house children who have been placed out of home. Children from families full of misery. There are also children without parents. Family parents take care of them. There is a school and all kinds of special facilities for the children. The care in De Glind falls largely under the organization Pluryn.
Abuse and mistreatment by foster parents
Rumors of abuses have been circulating for years. Back in 2019, three former foster children from the village reported to Pluryn management. They told about abuse and mistreatment in the late 1980s and early 1990s, which they themselves experienced as children and about which others told them.The former residents said they were spat on, kicked, slapped and abused. Sometimes they had to stand upright in the corner of a room for hours, and they would get a beating from a foster parent when he or she noticed them sitting on the floor. Fingers pointed at multiple caregivers.
The three said there were dozens of others with traumatizing experiences. Pluryn said it was shocked by the reports and promised to investigate. But investigations failed to materialize. And so did reports.
In March 2023, Pluryn announced that Erasmus University Rotterdam and Be4You2, an organization dedicated to youth and adults who were placed out of home as children, would conduct independent research into former residents' experiences with De Glind. A research plan was shared with the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. In April this year, Pluryn made another appeal: whether witnesses would like to come forward.
Still filing tax returns
In 2023, three other former residents reported to the Amsterdam law firm Plasman Advocaten. A fourth followed later. They are three women and one man. They did not initially know each other. The four are now 39 to 47 years old. They were five, six, seven and ten years old when they were placed there between 1986 and 1990. The last one left De Glind in 1992. These four still want to press charges. This is directed against the now 67-year-old C. W., their foster father in the house where they stayed.The report states: 'Clients describe W. as an aggressive, malicious and intimidating man, for whom every foster child was obviously terrified. Remarkably, they describe seeing a different W. the moment W. came to their bedside in the evenings. They all describe some sort of evening ritual, where W. comes by their room in the late evening or night and gropes them in their beds.'And, 'The icy, harsh and terrifying side of W. described by clients can be seen as a coercive force in relation to being able to allow sexual abuse to take place. The power W. had over young vulnerable children is evident.' Chilling is a passage in which the declarants recount how they heard screams from other rooms and waited until it was their turn. To this day, the four say they suffer greatly from the events.
Systems Therapist
C. W. still works in health care. He is a system therapist and is registered with the NVRG, the quality register for system therapists. The organization for which he works has deliberately not been named for privacy reasons. What does he himself think of the allegations? C. W. was asked for a reaction through various channels, but did not respond.
Why are the four filing charges only now? Attorney Jordi L'Homme, who is assisting the declarants: "They now feel ready to take this step because they have found each other. Importantly, they never previously felt empowered by others to file charges. In addition, these are events from a long time ago. Also, a previous report by one of the women in the 1990s was dismissed." L'Homme finds it extraordinary "how powerfully they came out of the misery and how much fighting spirit they showed.
'Cover culture'
That is a recurring sound in the alleged abuse and mistreatment scandal. Former De Glind employees and administrators that The Telegraph spoke to talk about a closed culture. A hedging culture. The village did not want to get a bad image. Many people who worked there also lived there. "They were not sufficiently critical of each other. Nobody ever stepped forward and said: the bottom line must come out," says a former employee who worked there until about ten years ago.A retired detective and police chief from Friesland bit into The Glind case. He heard of signs of abuse and it hit him. "I was an orphan myself and was horrified to hear that vulnerable children had this happen to them," says "Paul," who wishes to remain anonymous. He got in touch with former residents and also with the four accusers and spent a year and a half investigating the abuses they reported in De Glind.The former detective is convinced that abuse and mistreatment took place and that there must have been more victims than the current four accusers. "But you cannot dismiss the whole village as a 'wrong village.' Remember: we are talking about many tens of years with many hundreds or more children. That does not change the fact that the stories are terrible and that the bottom line needs to come out. Perhaps now more people will step forward."
Discouraged
According to Paul, there was not so much of a cover-up culture. "Reporters were systematically discouraged from reporting or reporting. There was not so much conscious 'cover-up,' but there was a culture of 'we'll take care of it ourselves.' And because these were children who often had violent pasts themselves, people were quick to think: Are their stories reliable? In the 1980s and 1990s there was no policy at all for monitoring abuse in health care institutions and responding appropriately. Nor was there any truth-telling at all. "The former investigator is gloomy about the approach to abuses in youth care. "There have been numerous commissions investigating abuses and dealing with them, and all sorts of things have been promised, but I don't have the impression that lessons have really been learned and things have changed substantially. We have become an excuse society. Apologies but no actions." According to him, the police and judiciary are certainly not waiting to get started on a dated case. "That is why I have already delved into the case."
Staying down
The East Netherlands Prosecutor's Office says that in 2022, people wishing to report or file a report were advised to contact the police. "As a result, no reports and/or notifications have been received. The police and the Public Prosecution Service also ran some internal checks to see whether anything had been left out or overlooked. According to lawyer L'Homme, the facts that the four of them have now reported can still be prosecuted. A spokesman for the Prosecutor General's Office confirmed that prosecution is possible despite statutes of limitations. "Without knowing the details of the case, it is difficult to give a precise answer. All sorts of factors come into play, including the exact age of the suspect and victim at the time of the acts and any subsequent leads or prosecutions. Care organization Pluryn will not respond until later this week.
Two of the four declarants tell their stories at length in The Telegraph on Thursday.
