NETHERLANDS
Dutch News
The chairman of the Catholic church committee set up to investigate sexual abuse claims pressured victims not to call for a parliamentary inquiry, according to radio current affairs show Argos at the weekend.
Former Christian Democratic party chairman Wim Deetman headed the commission set up by the church in 2010 after the sexual abuse scandal broke in the Netherlands.
The commission report said in 2011 at least 800 Roman Catholic priests and monks were involved in abusing children in their care between 1945 and 1985.
Argos reported at the weekend that in March 2012, Deetman had pressured members of the victims lobby group Klokk not to call for a parliamentary inquiry, arguing that the issue had been ‘researched sufficiently’.
His secretary Bert Kreemers had also sent emails to Klokk members saying that parliament is ‘not a research institute’ and that hearings under oath were ‘a farce’.
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