The four eldest children of Gerrit Jan van D. start a civil lawsuit against their father. The criminal case against the man who was hidden with his children for years in a farm in Ruinerwold was last month discontinued because of his poor health. But the children still want a judge to rule on the case, their lawyer Corinne Jeekel said in the TV program. On 1.
“The justice, the recognition. That’s what they wanted from the start,” said Jeekel. “That there will be a judicial judgment on what was wrong. ”Now that the criminal case cannot go ahead, the four hope that the civil judge will still establish that Van D. has acted unlawfully.
The criminal court stopped the case against Van D. last month. 68-year-old Van D. suffered a stroke on the farm in Ruinerwold in 2016. He is paralyzed, can barely speak and his sight, memory and sense of reality are seriously affected. He was suspected of deprivation of liberty of all nine children and of sexually assaulting the two elders.
Under receivership
According to Jeekel, a civil case is possible. “As far as I know, he is not under receivership. Strictly speaking, he is legally competent and such a person can sue you,” she said in the talk show. “At the end of next week a summons will also be served on him by the bailiff. It is almost ready.”
She does take into account that a lawyer will say that Van D. should still be placed under guardianship. The whole procedure will certainly take several months, Jeekel thinks.
Another child left
Furthermore, it turned out last night that one of the five youngest children who, after the discovery of the family, still lived with Van D. had continued to live, has left him after all.
“Also in my experience my father has done too many things that cannot be justified”, the now adult child said in the documentary. The children of Ruinerwold, which was broadcast on NPO 1 ,. “That is why I have recently stopped living with him.”
The four older children who are now starting a civil suit had left earlier, but one son and four daughters had stayed with him. In a statement last month they wrote that they did not feel a victim of their father.
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