Paedophile warning posters go up after ban fails

10-31-2009 Netherlands:

The release of a convicted sex offender can stir up a community, but recent attempts to keep one from returning to the Dutch city of Eindhoven have caused equal commotion.

His face was plastered on the front page of the biggest newspaper in the country on Thursday. De Telegraaf daily had removed the customary black bar before the eyes and, contrary to Dutch journalistic practice, used his full name while referring to "the paedophile who sees only one victim: himself". The paper had printed the same picture that has appeared on posters behind windows across Eindhoven.

Sytze van der V. (61) had hoped to return to this southern city after serving a 27 month sentence for abusing four young boys; his third conviction for such sex crimes against minors. Before he was released last month, however, mayor Rob van Gijzel notified him that he would be barred from entering his former place of residence.
Under a pilot project introduced in August, Van Gijzel had been warned about the imminent release of Van der V. The repeat offender had served the detention part of his sentence, but his appeal against the following 5 year supervision was still pending.

The local authorities offered him a rented apartment if he dropped his appeal and accepted constant supervision and an electronic ankle bracelet. The deal would also require him to stay away from schools, play grounds, pools and day care centres.

When Van der V. responded he would only accept limited supervision and would not wear the bracelet or give up swimming, Van Gijzel used his authority to bar the man from the city. The mayor was promptly overruled by a court which determined he could not use a law to protect public order against the man, despite his high chance of of recidivism.

This case illustrates a dilemma that appears to crop up every time a paedophile is released from prison: does the fact that he has served his sentence make him a free man or should his deed follow him for the rest of his life the way it does his victims?

The Netherlands does not keep a public register of convicted sex offenders. There are some private initiatives to do so, despite Dutch privacy laws that prohibit the publication of personal details of people who have been convicted. But the poster campaign now running in Eindhoven resembles the naming and shaming crusades seen mostly in the US and the UK. With the ban revoked, people in Eindhoven have taken matters into their own hands and put up posters of the man's face with the text "convicted paedo get out of here" around the city.

In a telephone interview on the late night show Pauw&Witteman on Tuesday, Van der V. said he felt hunted and had been sleeping in his car. Research has shown that sex offenders who are excluded from society have a higher probability of relapsing. "The chances are the smallest when these people are offered a safe place in society," Jules Mulder, who runs a forensic psychiatric clinic where sex offenders are treated, told NRC Handelsblad. "The best thing is to inform the neighbourhood about the arrival of a paedophile and put the man and the community in touch with each other."

Although there is little sympathy for the man, experts have pointed out that it is impossible to exile him from an entire municipality as this would just shift the problem elsewhere. "I understand Van Gijzel is at his wits' end," Sjef van Gennip, head of the Dutch rehabilitation office, said after the ruling. "But if he does not solve the problem, some other mayor will have to deal with it. There are children in every city."

Van Gennip does agree with the mayor that there is a "loophole in the legislation". Mayors are currently informed when a sex offender is released and returns to their municipality, but there is little they can do with that information. The justice ministry said that it is reviewing whether mayors should get more authority to act when perpetrators of serious crimes are released into their communities.

Van Gennip said that he would also like the ministry to prevent the release of sex offenders before the arrangements for state supervision are in place, even if a paedophile's case is still under appeal. ..Source.. by news staff