Prosecutors demand 12 years for online abuse of 245 girls

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) has demanded 12 years in prison and TBS with compulsory treatment (dwangverpleging) for Bas P., a man from Herten in Limburg. At the Rotterdam district court, prosecutors linked 245 victims to him. He is accused of abusing girls online through a computer game called the “Highscoregame”.

The victims come from the Netherlands and abroad, including Belgium, the United States, Australia and Germany. The youngest is 8. Not all the girls could be identified. Police focused on the youngest and on those subjected to the most extreme acts or coercion, and identified 20: 12 from the Netherlands and 8 from Flanders. Six victims described in court what the abuse has done to their lives.

In the game, children earn points by completing tasks to reach the next level. The tasks start innocently, such as waving at the camera, and become sexual. The children did not know the suspect was watching and recording. “He was highly sophisticated in his methods, and he went further and further,” the prosecutor said.

Prosecutors suspect he also blackmailed some children with the footage to force further acts. Detectives found at least 255 videos of girls on his computer, dated September 2017 to 1 October 2025, the day he was arrested. A folder named “BM” held videos of crying minors and standard texts, including: “Don’t skip, OK? If you do, everyone around you will get to see this clip” (“Don’t skip, OK? If you do, everyone around you will get to see this clip”).

The suspect told the court he made a large part of the images himself. He denies using coercion and says he received the texts and videos in that folder from someone else. Prosecutors do not believe him, citing the same backgrounds, programmes and methods as in the other game videos on his computer. His lawyer called the demand “buitenproportioneel” (disproportionate), saying there is not enough evidence for 245 victims.

Police first noticed him on 3 July 2024 after information from the United States. He was suspected of being a user of a dark web forum where child sexual abuse material is shared. Besides the online abuse, he is on trial for possessing, producing and distributing such material, possessing instruction material for child sexual abuse, and taking part in a criminal organisation. The court will announce its verdict at a later date.