The Hague, Netherlands (AP) – Prosecutors asked a Dutch court on Thursday to drop the case against a 68-year-old father accused of isolating and abusing his own children, who were kept isolated from the outside world for years in one location remote farmhouse.
The case attracted global attention in 2019, when police discovered the father with six of his children in a hidden room in a farmhouse in eastern Holland, after a son raised the alarm.
At a preliminary hearing in January of last year, prosecutors portrayed his father as a deeply religious man who saw his family as “chosen by God” and did everything in his power – including physical beatings and other punishments – to prevent them from succumbing to what he considered malignant external influences.
Prosecutors now say the man, identified only as Gerrit Jan van D. by Dutch privacy rules, was largely incapacitated by a stroke in 2016. Continuing the case would violate his right to a fair trial as he cannot defend himself , prosecutors said.
While asking the judges to suspend the case, prosecutors said their efforts and those of the police had served a useful purpose in releasing the family.
“We took the youngest children out of what was then an unsafe and bizarre situation. And throughout the investigation, we gave them something they didn’t have before: a real existence in our society through their registration in the personal register, but most importantly: freedom of choice ”.
The six children who stayed on the farm are now young. Three older brothers had already left the family’s life isolated. His mother died in 2004.
Prosecutors acknowledged that their decision would be difficult for children who escaped isolation and told investigators “about the terrible things they have suffered”.
Prosecutors said that while the case against the father ends, all children are now free to choose their own future, even if it means returning to isolation with the sick father.
“In the past 18 months, the children got to know our society, were able to participate in it and received spiritual and medical care,” they said. “If, now that they have been able to prove the alternative, they still choose to live in seclusion with their father again, to exercise their faith … the choice is theirs.”