So cemented in our minds was his party-animal demeanour that, when he seemed to have fallen off the face of the earth in late August, my circle of friends began to speculate β only half-jokingly β that he had died of a heart attack or was in jail for drug possession.
The most troubling thing, however, was not that this violent paedophile had deceived us, but that he had been able to hide in plain sight for some 15 years, when British and Czech authorities knew he was living in Prague for nearly this entire time. Yet the case of my old acquaintance Willem demonstrates the hazards of an apathetic approach to claims of sexual assault on the young.
In , Lewes Crown Court sentenced him to seven years in jail for charges including sexual assault at knifepoint, taking indecent images of children, and drugging a year-old homeless boy and selling him into sexual slavery in the Netherlands.
The following year, he was awarded parole after having served 30 months. Part of the agreement was that he must remain in the UK for the duration of his probationary period. He promptly fled to the Continent.
According to press reports from the time, it was no mystery where he had gone. Granted, this article appeared before the internet was widely in use, at least in the Czech Republic. But it did mention an alias that Willem was using in Prague. Had UK authorities posted the newspaper to their colleagues in the Czech Republic, it would not have taken long to locate their wanted man.
