A Limburg couple who sexually abused at least seven children after pretending to be babysitters have been each jailed for 12 years.

In addition Peter S will be transferred to a secure psychiatric unit for treatment on completion of his sentence. The woman, Nancy D, will also undergo behavioural therapy.

S and D abused the children, aged between one and six, over a period of 18 months. D had posed as a babysitter to access the children and filmed the abuse, which S watched online or on video. D also drugged her own daughter at least twice.

‘This is a case that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up,’ the public prosecutor said during the hearing last month. ‘It is a disgusting case and it would be hard to find a more gruesome one.’

D admitted all the charges, S some of them.

The couple met in 2018 and went on to have an extreme SM-based relationship. They were also interested in sex with animals and in Nazism, broadcaster Omroep Brabant reported. In total, they are thought to have abused at least 20 children since 2019.