For more than 10 years, Gerrit Jan Van Dorsten abused his children and kept them locked in cages as part of his belief that the world was ending. The six youngsters, all adults by the time they were freed, endured beatings, starvation, and isolation.
One child locked in a kennel for an entire summer
The children were subjected to regular beatings and denied food. One was locked in a kennel for an entire summer. When arrested in 2019, Van Dorsten claimed his children were "unclean" and that his treatment would "stop evil spirits."
It was the brave actions of one of his children, Israel, known as Jan, that freed his siblings. In October 2019, Jan walked into a bar in a tiny Dutch village and told staff what was happening. Police rushed to the property and uncovered the chilling scene.
Hidden dungeon and custom-built cells
Officers rescued the children from the house of horrors. Van Dorsten was charged with doling out "very serious physical punishment." Jan explained that he and his siblings had not been allowed to leave the property for nine years, waiting for the apocalypse.
As the investigation progressed, it emerged that Van Dorsten had kept his children, aged 18 to 25, locked in tiny, custom-built cells in a hidden dungeon beneath the house. During the court case, it also emerged that one child had both hands and feet tied as punishment, and another was held captive in a dog house for an entire summer, forced to live in a caravan.
Disciple jailed, father too ill for trial
A 61-year-old Austrian handyman, described as a "disciple" of Van Dorsten, was jailed for helping to isolate the children. Identified only as Joseph B due to Dutch privacy rules, he brought the family food and shopping. The court in Assen found him not guilty of detaining three older children and abusing any of Van Dorsten's children.
Van Dorsten himself was deemed too ill for trial after suffering a stroke. He was charged with depriving the kids of their liberty from 2007 to 2019, as well as alleged sexual abuse of two of his older three children. Prosecutors said the youngest six of the nine children "lived in seclusion from birth, were kept indoors and had to be quiet so that no one would notice that they existed." Having never attended school, they were not registered with Dutch authorities and had lost the ability to talk properly, speaking a bizarre "fantasy language" to shocked police.
