Pedophile networks: the Zandvoort affair (part 1)

2023-10-13 20:35:13

SCANDALS NOT TO BE FORGOTTEN

After my little summer chronicles, which told you judicial anecdotes symptomatic of the evolution (or sometimes stagnation) of the institution over the centuries, I said to myself that it might be useful to recall some “big cases “. By “big cases”, I mean scandals which caused a lot of noise, and sometimes shook institutions, at a time not necessarily distant, but nevertheless enough for today’s youth to ignore them or many details to have been forgotten.

I would not necessarily have started with the Zandvoort affair if Zoé Sagan had not managed to get her hands on the documentary “Pedophile networks – The piece that accuses”, which discusses this affair, and had not relayed it on . Given the considerable number of views and reactions that Zoé Sagan’s tweet has provoked, I think it is appropriate to give details now (first hand, it was me who at the time was provided with the Zandvoort CD-ROM) for the readers of France-Soir.

The Zandvoort affair (part 1)

It was during the first quarter of 2000 that the so-called “Zandvoort affair” broke out in France. At issue are documents seized from a Dutch pedophile, proving the existence of pedophile networks whose existence the authorities are trying to conceal, and potentially identified French victims. The media impact is considerable, triggering many controversies and revealing a rather astonishing succession of what I will mercifully call judicial “dysfunctions”.

In November 1999, Serge Garde and I were in Belgium to investigate the gray areas surrounding the Dutroux affair. Serge works for the daily Humanity, me not, but the subject interests us both, and in delicate investigations, there is strength in numbers. Belgian gendarmes will then suggest that we meet the members of an association fighting against the sexual exploitation of children, the non-profit association Morkhoven, headed by a certain Marcel Vervloesem. We will end up meeting the latter after adventures worthy of a thriller. He explains to us that terrible photos and videos are exchanged on websites, where children are subjected to abuse, particularly sexual abuse, of all kinds. On our second meeting, in an apartment, he proves it to us by showing us some of these sites. We are stunned, and horrified, by the truly horrific images that we discover, and by the ease with which it is possible to access them. A few clicks and you are plunged into horror. We must realize that at the end of the 20th century, the entry of the Internet into homes in Europe was very recent, social networks did not exist, and that its uses were very poorly known to the general public, and even to journalists. Control by European police of the way in which organized crime takes over the internet is still quite rudimentary.

Marcel Vervloesem gives us several documents, including a file of 472 children’s faces, signed by the Dutch police and an address book. The file of faces would be intended to feed a database of victims to be identified, and is supposed to have been made from a child pornography CD-ROM seized from a Dutch child criminal, Gerrit Ulrich. Ulrich’s home in Zandvoort is said to be a hub for the distribution of these images. We also find in the file 17 photos of adults’ faces, entitled “perpetrators” (rapists) by the police. The address book was also found with the same Dutch criminal. We learn that he died, murdered by his lover, a year earlier.

The Morkhovens promise to send the CD-ROM to L’Humanité headquarters soon, in order to prove that the photos in the Dutch file actually came from it. We return to France, and we wait. But it doesn’t happen. Twice we are told he is on his way, and twice we see nothing coming.

The big file of Humanity

My patience is relatively limited when it comes to crimes against children, and so I decide to go about things differently. I managed to recover the CD-ROM (and no, it was not Marcel who gave it to me as I have often read it), and took it to Humanity where we can verify that the Dutch police file was indeed created from this document.

In February 2000, Humanity publishes a large file, and families contact us to consult the Dutch police file. They filed a complaint of rape against their child(ren) and the latter say they were filmed during certain abuses. These parents therefore want to check if by some extraordinary coincidence, their little ones’ faces are not on the file. And against all expectations, three French families recognize their children. We compare domestic photos of the supposed little French victims with those in the Dutch document. Indeed, it seems to be them, the similarities are obvious. We are therefore publishing these new elements.

The problem is that, if the fine editorial effort of Humanity is cited in press reviews, it goes no further. The institutions don’t bat an eye, it’s not picked up by anyone, in short, the silence is deafening.

And of The They au Figaro…

So, in March 2000, I met Christophe Doré from Figaro and then went to see Ivan Rioufol, at the time editor-in-chief of the daily’s General Information department. The management of Figaro then did something remarkable: he agreed to give us space to resume and continue an investigation initiated in the columns of Humanity. Many places ! On April 6 and 7, 2000, Le Figaro successively on the front page: “The scandal of unpunished pedophiles” then “Justice is incapable…” (of fighting against network crime), and Christophe Doré and I write full-page articles each time.

This time, the affair explodes. It is repeated on all the television channels, in all the newspapers, so much so that Élizabeth Guigou, then Keeper of the Seals, intervenes on the set of the France 3 news and affirms that she “does not want anything to be left to chance in this matter” (sic). She also asks the journalists to hand over the CD-ROM to the courts, which does not fail to surprise me: it would have seemed more logical to me to request it from the Dutch police by international letter rogatory. Serge Garde, however, wishes to hand over the copy he has in his possession, and he gives it to the attorney general of Paris, Alexandre Benmakhlouf. As for me, I will hand over the address book during my hearing to the Paris Minors’ Brigade, which summoned me like the other journalists who participated in the investigation.

To our great surprise, an extravagant controversy in the press will then be triggered, as well as a succession of what the prosecutor Éric de Montgolfier would have described as “curious judicial practices”. I will be sure to tell you all about this in a second part.