Utrecht court sentences Woudenberg couple to 20 and 12 years for abusing six children

The verdict

The Utrecht district court on Tuesday 3 November 2026 sentenced Richard van den B. (57) to 20 years in prison and a TBS order with forced confinement. His former partner Evertje van E. (34) received 12 years with the same order. Both are from Woudenberg, a village in Utrecht province. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) had asked for 30 years for him and 20 years for her, both with TBS. The court looked at broadly similar cases and therefore landed lower, and it found that not all of the charges had been proven.

Richard van den B. demanded30

Richard van den B. sentenced20

Evertje van E. demanded20

Evertje van E. sentenced12

Richard van den B. demanded

30 years

Richard van den B. sentenced

20 years

Evertje van E. demanded

20 years

Evertje van E. sentenced

12 years

Data from the article text

The abuse

Over a period of almost five years the couple sexually abused six children, some of them only a few months old when the abuse began. Four of the victims are the children of a close friend of Van E. and two are the children of her brother. The couple regularly looked after them. Prosecutors said Van den B. abused the children while they were in his care, while Van E. held them or drugged them with GHB. The OM's cautious estimate counts more than 700 incidents, a figure RTV Utrecht had published earlier and NOS repeated. According to NRC, five of the victims are girls and one is a boy, two children were raped, and several were forced to watch pornography and to watch the couple have sex.

The officers of justice described the conduct as 'chilling' and 'sadistic' and said its impact was comparable to that of a homicide. The court treated the drugging as an aggravating factor. One girl lost consciousness and was left helpless. The judge said the children had been talked about 'in a shocking way'.

How the case came to light

The case came to light in early 2025, when two of the children told their parents about the abuse at home. The two suspects were arrested shortly after that. Telegraaf also reports that a child's remark to her mother about having a 'secret' set the case in motion. Police found photos and videos along with about 8,000 pages of chat messages in which the couple fantasised about the abuse and discussed what they had done.

The defendants' accounts

Van den B. denied most of the abuse. He admitted to having a sex addiction but said he had abused the children 'not deliberately', and he told the court he had no active memory of the acts. The court found that account wholly implausible. Experts could not advise on TBS for him, yet the judge still imposed a forced-confinement order because the court considers he cannot return to society without treatment. Van E. first denied the charges and later admitted giving the children GHB and holding them while her then partner abused them. She said she cooperated out of fear of him. Experts diagnosed several disorders in her, including PTSD from years of sexual abuse by her father, who has been convicted for it. Her diminished criminal responsibility is the reason her term is shorter. Both must keep away from their victims under a contact ban.

Next steps

The OM and the suspects have two weeks to lodge an appeal. The defence lawyers hinted that they would not appeal if the prosecution did not. In a first reaction, an OM spokesperson said the service was still studying the verdict. The victims' families want peace and privacy.