Money is pouring in for ‘children of Ruinerwold’ | Inland

In recent weeks, the story of the oldest four, including the one who sounded the alarm, was shown on television in the documentary The Children of Ruinerwold. Documentary maker Jessica Villerius talks in it with the three now adult boys and a woman after she was approached by them in 2019 because they wanted to tell their story. Villerius has followed them ever since. Millions of people watched the series.

The foundation behind the crowdfunding is an initiative of Esther Suurmond, among others. “Heartwarming and bizarre,” she called the fact that so much money is already being given. Suurmond, along with other close friends and former housemates of one of the oldest children, wants to provide financial support to the nine children because they “have seen that the past turbulent year has had a major impact on them.” She said earlier in De Nieuws BV that the oldest children are positive about the initiative. The target amount for the fundraising campaign is 30,000 euros per child, 270,000 euros in total.

D. was accused of detaining six of his children against their will for years on a remote farm in the Drenthe village. He is also said to have maltreated his children and sexually abused a number of them. The family would have lived in a kind of religious ban, led by Van D. But the court in Assen ruled in March this year that Van D.’s criminal prosecution had to be ended because he cannot stand trial due to his poor health.

Van D. suffered serious and permanent brain damage from a stroke in 2016. The decision of the court released the man.

Their lawyer Corinne Jeekel has now announced that he wants to start civil proceedings against their father on behalf of the four oldest children. “As far as I know, he is currently not under guardianship and so strictly speaking he is legally competent,” said Jeekel in the television program Op1 earlier this week. She stated that the eldest children in the family wanted justice and recognition from the outset. “So that there will be a judicial judgment on what was wrong. It simply cannot be that this will pass without a judicial judgment.”

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