Dutch Man Sentenced to 5 Years for Forcing 3 Girlfriends Into S*x Work, Blackmailing Them With Videos

A Dutch court on Thursday convicted a 35-year-old man from Winschoten of forcing three successive girlfriends into s*x work, using blackmail, threats of violence and drug dependency to control them.

What The Court Found

The Noord-Nederland District Court in Groningen sentenced the man to five years in prison after finding him guilty of systematically s*xually exploiting three women. He blackmailed them with videos of s*xual acts, threatened them with violence, and made them dependent on the drug GHB so they would perform s*x acts with paying clients, keeping the money they earned for himself.

The court also convicted him of cocaine trafficking and threatening to murder a buyer who could not pay. The acts took place between May 2020 and his arrest at the end of May 2025, primarily in East Groningen and other locations in the northern Netherlands. ‘They Would Negotiate’: Canadian S*x Worker Explains Why She Stopped Seeing Indian, Pakistani Clients (Video).

Sentencing Details

In addition to the prison term, the court imposed a TBS psychiatric treatment order with conditions and an Article 38z measure. TBS is a Dutch order for psychiatric treatment of offenders, and the version with conditions is less restrictive than the compulsory treatment version prosecutors had sought, requiring the defendant to follow court-imposed rules under supervision rather than forced placement in a closed clinic.

The Article 38z measure is an additional long-term supervision order that can continue after the prison sentence and TBS end. Prosecutors had originally sought eight years in prison and a TBS order with compulsory treatment. Thailand Woman Jailed for Forcing 12-Year-Old Daughter Into S*x Work in Japan’s Tokyo.

The Three Victims

Victim 1, now about 23, was trafficked from September 2024 through May 2025 in Winschoten and Groningen. Victim 2, now about 30, was trafficked from June 2021 through New Year's Day 2023 in Groningen, Oude Pekela, and other northern Netherlands locations. Victim 3, now about 24, was trafficked from May 2020 through August 2021 in Winschoten.

How The Defendant Targeted And Controlled The Women

According to the prosecution, the defendant sought out the women while they were in vulnerable positions. "Women who were looking for something to hold on to, who wanted to believe in a future together with him. The moment the women were most vulnerable, he struck," the prosecutor said.

He was coercive but also used a more calculated method, the prosecutor added. "He made them addicted to hard drugs. He deliberately made the women dependent and used this dependency to provide for his own livelihood: in money, in housing, and in satisfying his own s*xual fetish."

The court accepted reliable statements along with legal and convincing supporting evidence showing the victims often had to perform extreme s*xual acts with the defendant and with others under the threat of violence and while under the influence of drugs. The defendant also threatened to publish or forward s*xually explicit photos and videos of them.

The women progressively lost control over their own lives, a control the prosecutor said shifted to the defendant over time. "One of the women lost her job and her contacts, while the defendant increasingly controlled her via cameras and her phone... He also had access to one woman's bank card and PIN code."

Prosecutors Stress Importance Of Reporting Abuse

Prosecutors held it heavily against the defendant that he exploited the victims' vulnerability, used violence and required the women to be available to him at all times, leaving them with limited freedom of movement and little or no control over their own earnings.

The case underscores the importance of filing a report, the prosecutor said, even though circumstances often make that difficult, urging people around a victim to step up. "Be available for the victim should the moment come when this victim crosses a threshold and dares to seek help."

Even from prison, the defendant tried to keep the women small and dependent, but did not succeed. "The women who have let their voices be heard today are no longer just victims," the prosecutor said in court in Groningen. "Each of them has, in her own way, rebuilt her life step by step. That deserves recognition. And they deserve that justice is also done today for the acts that were done to them."

Compensation Ordered

The court ordered the defendant to pay the first victim 24,500 euros plus interest dating from last year, the second victim 20,000 euros plus interest dating from 2023, and the third victim 20,000 euros plus interest dating from 2021. The court also ruled on the seized goods.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 17, 2026 08:38 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).