Amsterdam - The arrest of a Dutch special-needs swim teacher after the seizure of tens of thousands of photographs of him allegedly abusing mentally-disabled girls has thrown the country into shock. The man, 59-year old Benno Larue, ran a swimming school which specialized in teaching mentally-retarded children, children with water phobias and children with other special needs.
He was arrest on June 8 on suspicion of sexual assault, sending shockwaves through the local community and the country, as details of the evidence against him emerged.
"We have confiscated tens of thousands of pornographic pictures and video footage of hundreds of girls," a spokesman of the police in Den Bosch in the southern Netherlands told the German Press Agency dpa.
"The pictures show the swimming teacher performing sexual acts on at least 98 girls, aged 6 to 16," he added.
Given the obvious difficulties in interviewing the special-needs children, due to their disabilities, estimates of the number of potential victims have ranged to possibly over 1,000.
Two girls have so far been identified. Police said that so far it appears all girls had been the victims of assault, not rape.
Larue taught in several swimming pools in Den Bosch and three nearby towns and villages.
He had previously been under police investigation five years ago, also on suspicion of sexual abuse, but the evidence was insufficient for an arrest.
Speaking at an emergency meeting of more than 400 parents of Larue's pupils, Dutch police confirmed they had confiscated the suspect's five computers, eight hard drives , 10 cameras and 16 memory cards containing tens of thousands of photos and video footage of girls aged 6 to 16.
"Regrettably, many parents of his current and former pupils will never know if anything ever happened to their children," Den Bosch police chief Wilbert Paullissen said, adding Larue had probably not recorded all children he allegedly assaulted.
As many of Larue's pupils are mentally-retarded, police have not yet decided whether they will interrogate the children to collect evidence, the police chief said.
"Interrogating these children will be a major task and very complicated," he said.
Rumours about suspected sexual abuse by the swimming teacher first surfaced five years ago, but a police investigation did not lead anywhere.
Then on June 7 police unexpectedly received concrete information about possible sexual abuse. The next day, the police arrested Larue and started a wide-ranging investigation.
More than 100 police detectives are now working on what appears to be the largest sexual abuse case in the Netherlands in decades.
Speaking after the first parent's meeting, Den Bosch mayor Ton Rombouts said many parents were "emotional" and "in shock."
Dutch anti-child porn organisation Meldpunt Kinderporno said it was an "extraordinary" case.
"Many child porn collectors possess more than 100,000 pictures, but they usually build their "collection" by exchanging pictures with others," a spokesperson said, "But this swimming teacher appears to have made all pictures himself."
Local police said the suspect remains in police detention pending the investigation.
