Amsterdam sets up inquiry into daycare child abuse scandal

Amsterdam city council is to set up an independent inquiry into the daycare child abuse scandal which has now widened to include three crèches.


Police now believe main suspect Roberts Mikelsons, arrested nearly two weeks ago, has abused 64 children, many of them younger than four. The claim is based on Mikelsons own statements.
On Sunday it also emerged Mikelsons’ partner was suspected of spreading child pornography and sexually assaulting an 11-year-old boy in 2002.
Internet
The third man arrested in connection with the case, who worked at one of the crèches, is suspected of forcing minors to carry out sexual acts over the internet and possessing child porn.
It has also emerged that the director of the crèche where most of the abuse is thought to have happened was sacked from his job at a daycare centre in the 1990s for ‘unacceptable behaviour’.
The crèche directors will not say what that behaviour entailed but confirm the matter was reported to the police, the Volkskrant reports.
Investigation
The investigation will be carried out by Louise Gunning-Schepers, head of the city’s health service.
The inquiry will focus on how the abuse came to happen and will take a maximum three months, the city council said.

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