Netherlands: Father of 9 accused of abusing and sequestering his children for a decade

W/S Courtoom, Assen
SOT, Diana Roggen, Prosecutor (Dutch): "[The eldest son] was no longer allowed to be with the family in 2001 in Staphorst, he was then 12 years old. He stayed in a caravan, somewhere else on the property. After that he spent an entire summer in a doghouse in a barn before he had to go to Meppel. There, too, he was not allowed to have contact with the family."
M/S Courtoom
SOT, Diana Roggen, Prosecutor (Dutch): "The punishments would consist of beatings, sometimes with a stick or other objects, pulling of their hair, sometimes making them sit in a cold bath for hours. Sometimes they were chocked to the point where they became unconscious."
M/S Courtoom
SOT, Yehudi Moskowicz, Defence lawyer for handyman Josef Brunner (Dutch): "The outside door was always open, let's pause at this, you could go in and out. This was to give more oxygen to the father. Three doors in the house had bolts that could be locked from the inside. 'To go outside was always possible, but we wanted to stay within the fence. If I had wanted to leave, I would have left long ago.'"
M/S Courtoom
SOT, Yehudi Moskowicz, Defence lawyer for handyman Josef Brunner (Dutch): "One of the women: 'I was afraid he would find out what I had done, and I wouldn't be able to finish my school. That is why I decided to leave.' Notwithstanding the pleading notes, this person decided for themselves, without being obstructed, to leave."
W/S Courtroom
SCRIPT
Prosecutors in the Netherlands said a 67-year-old farmer held six of his nine children captive for nearly a decade and sexually abused them, during a court hearing in Assen on Tuesday.
Gerrit-Jan van Dorsten, the defendant, who is facing charges of unlawful detention, child abuse, money laundering and sexual abuse, suffered a stroke and can no longer speak. He was not present at the pre-trial hearing.
Yehudi Moskowicz, the lawyer of another defendant in the case, Austrian handyman Josef Brunner, argued the children were not held captive as they could leave the house.
"The outside door was always open, let's pause at this, you could go in and out. This was to give more oxygen to the father." Three doors in the house had bolts that could be locked from the inside, said Moskowicz, who added, quoting one of the children, "To go outside was always possible, but we wanted to stay within the fence. If I had wanted to leave, I would have left long ago."
Van Dorsten allegedly blamed the children the death of their mother in 2004, telling them it was their fault for having contact with the outside world.