Supreme Court annuls judge’s child porn conviction

The Supreme Court yesterday quashed the ruling on Judge F. Fernhout. The appeal court in Arnhem in April 2006 found him guilty of possession of child pornography.

In April 2006, the Arnhem appeal court sentenced Fernhout to a suspended prison sentence of one month for possession of child pornography. Eleven videotapes with titles such as ‘Boys for Sale’ and ‘Sweet Little Boys’ were found in 2001 in the judge’s home by a construction worker who was renovating the floor under which the material was hidden. Fernhout was at the time vice president of the district court in Maastricht.

The appeal court in Arnhem established that at least two of the videotapes depicted boys under the age of 16. Fernhout expressed criticism of the technique whereby an expert reached this conclusion. The appeal court in Arnhem rejected this criticism, but failed to substantiate its decision. Its verdict is therefore invalid, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday.

In 2004, a lower court had judged that a far larger number of tapes and pictures in Fernhout’s possession indicated child pornography than the amount named by the appeal court. At the time, Fernhout was given a suspended prison sentence of three months and fined 2500 euros.

In 2004, the Public Prosecutor’s Office (OM) had demanded 15 months in prison, five of which suspended, for Fernhout. Later, before the appeal court, it demanded 180 hours of community service and a suspended prison sentence of three months.

The OM initially intended to prosecute the judge also for alleged sexual abuse of his foster son. But it dropped the sexual abuse charge. In 2004, just after the district court ruling, the conservatives (VVD) and Labour (PvdA) suggested that then Justice Minister Donner had personally had a hand in that decision. Donner is now Social Affairs Minister.

Source: NIS News, 16 January 2008