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@ -13,39 +13,43 @@ relations:
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with: "[[The Church of New Revelation]]"
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role: "president"
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start: 1974
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fn: 2
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fn: 1
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- type: head_of
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with: "[[Ocean Living Institute]]"
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role: "president"
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start: 1974
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fn: 2
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fn: 1
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- type: founded
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with: "[[Brother Paul's Children's Mission]]"
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role: "primary incorporator"
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start: 1975
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fn: 2
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fn: 1
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- type: founded
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with: "[[Trust Company of the Virgin Islands]]"
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role: "founder and original owner"
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fn: 3
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fn: 2
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created: 2026-04-28
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updated: 2026-09-22
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updated: 2026-10-09
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---
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Adam Starchild, a name [[New Jersey]] authorities described as an alias, was listed in the Kearny, New Jersey, telephone book. Incorporation papers in three states showed him as president of [[The Church of New Revelation|the Church of the New Revelation]] and of the [[Ocean Living Institute]], both incorporated in Delaware in 1974 with principal places of business in New Jersey, as primary incorporator of [[Brother Paul's Children's Mission]] and as a trustee of the Educational Foundation for Youth of Illinois. The Internal Revenue Service granted the church and the institute tax exemption without investigating their claims to be charitable organizations. [[Gerald Richards]] told police that all four organizations were fronts for the production of child pornography. Starchild told the *Traverse City Record-Eagle* they had not been set up as fronts but might have been "used" for that purpose by [[Dyer Grossman]], who held offices in all three.[^2]
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Adam Starchild, a name [[New Jersey]] authorities described as an alias, was listed in the Kearny, New Jersey, telephone book. Incorporation papers in three states showed him as president of [[The Church of New Revelation|the Church of the New Revelation]] and of the [[Ocean Living Institute]], both incorporated in Delaware in 1974 with principal places of business in New Jersey, as primary incorporator of [[Brother Paul's Children's Mission]] and as a trustee of the Educational Foundation for Youth of Illinois. The Internal Revenue Service granted the church and the institute tax exemption without investigating their claims to be charitable organizations. [[Gerald Richards]] told police that all four organizations were fronts for the production of child pornography. Starchild told the *Traverse City Record-Eagle* they had not been set up as fronts but might have been "used" for that purpose by [[Dyer Grossman]], who held offices in all three.[^1]
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### The Shelden Trust
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On September 18, 1976, [[Francis Shelden]], who by 1978 was being sought by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] under a fugitive warrant, established a revocable trust with the Trust Company of the Virgin Islands, Ltd., organized in the British Virgin Islands, as trustee, and delivered to Starchild, "founder and original owner" of the trust company, securities he valued at about two million dollars, including all the stock of FDS Land Company of Michigan and Windigo Ranch, Inc., of Colorado. When Starchild failed for months to provide an accounting of the 1977 dividends, Shelden, on the advice of a Dutch tax lawyer, Antoon Kasdorp, removed the trust company by a document notarized in Amsterdam on April 13, 1978, and named as successor trustee [[Edward Brongersma]], a member of the Dutch Senate, who accepted the same day. The litigation over who controlled the trust ran through the federal courts into the mid-1980s; in 1985 Starchild, of Tarpon Springs, Florida, appeared as counsel for the defendants.[^3][^4] Federal cases of 1988 to 1990 were captioned *[[United States]] v. Starchild (Adam Aristotle), a/k/a McConahy (Malcolm).*[^5]
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In his deposition in the litigation over the trust, [[Francis Shelden]] testified that in July 1976 Dyer Grossman suggested that he contact Starchild, "an investment counseler specializing in offshore investments," whom Shelden had never met. Shelden telephoned Starchild in New Jersey, and Starchild recommended that he bring his stock certificates to New Jersey. Shelden testified that Starchild convinced him of his "alleged expertise in establishing tax shelters" and recommended that he form an offshore trust. The certificates were lodged in a vault at the Mid-Atlantic Bank of New Jersey, and two bank accounts of between 30,000 and 40,000 dollars were opened, one in Shelden's name and one in Starchild's, which Shelden said was "so he would have some money for administering my affairs."[^2]
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At a meeting at Shelden's house in Antigua, attended by Shelden, his brother Alger Shelden, Jr., L. Bennett Young and Starchild, Starchild stated that a trust was essential and recommended an irrevocable trust; at Young's insistence a revocable trust was decided on. The instrument was signed on September 28, 1976, by Shelden and by the Trust Company of the Virgin Islands, Ltd. "by Adam Starchild," and Starchild, as director of the trust company, acknowledged the appointment of Young as protector, which Shelden had made on October 9, 1976. In December 1976, Shelden testified, Starchild told him by telephone that Michigan had issued criminal warrants for his arrest and that Starchild was coming under scrutiny by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.[^2]
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According to the opinion's introduction, on September 18, 1976, Shelden, who by 1978 was being sought by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] under a fugitive warrant, established a revocable trust with the Trust Company of the Virgin Islands, Ltd., organized in the British Virgin Islands, as trustee, and delivered to Starchild, "founder and original owner" of the trust company, securities he valued at about two million dollars, including all the stock of FDS Land Company of Michigan and Windigo Ranch, Inc., of Colorado. When Starchild failed for months to provide an accounting of the 1977 dividends, Shelden, on the advice of a Dutch tax lawyer, Antoon Kasdorp, removed the trust company by a document notarized in Amsterdam on April 13, 1978, and named as successor trustee [[Edward Brongersma]], a member of the Dutch Senate, who accepted the same day. Shelden testified that Starchild had promised quarterly financial statements and that none arrived throughout 1977; that Starchild's 1978 list of 1977 dividends was in his view grossly in error; and that Starchild kept telling him, "Oh, the accountants are working on it."[^2] The litigation over who controlled the trust ran through the federal courts into the mid-1980s; in 1985 Starchild, of Tarpon Springs, Florida, appeared as counsel for the defendants.[^2][^3] On August 24, 1982, Judge Charles W. Joiner received a mailgram from Starchild, sent from Tarpon Springs, Florida, attacking L. Bennett Young and charging that "he will resort to any method to illegally obtain the funds to which he knows he has no entitlement, and no money should be handed over to him." The judge ordered the parties to respond and, on October 4, 1982, denied the Trust Company of the Virgin Islands' motion for rehearing. The Sixth Circuit affirmed on March 8, 1984.[^2] Federal cases of 1988 to 1990 were captioned *[[United States]] v. Starchild (Adam Aristotle), a/k/a McConahy (Malcolm).*[^4]
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### The McConahy Identity
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The writer S. Dovey wrote that Starchild was Malcolm Willis McConahy, an offshore tax attorney who faked his death in 1975, that he had been expelled as a scoutmaster in Minneapolis in 1965, and that he had been charged with possession of child pornography in Wisconsin before his association with Shelden. Dovey also wrote that he structured the transfer of Shelden's assets to the Virgin Islands trust to protect them from investigation, and described the church as the vehicle through which Brother Paul's could receive court-ordered juvenile delinquents on [[North Fox Island]]. He was linked through these networks to [[John David Norman]].[^1]
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The writer S. Dovey wrote that Starchild was Malcolm Willis McConahy, an offshore tax attorney who faked his death in 1975, that he had been expelled as a scoutmaster in Minneapolis in 1965, and that he had been charged with possession of child pornography in Wisconsin before his association with Shelden. Dovey also wrote that he structured the transfer of Shelden's assets to the Virgin Islands trust to protect them from investigation, and described the church as the vehicle through which Brother Paul's could receive court-ordered juvenile delinquents on [[North Fox Island]]. He was linked through these networks to [[John David Norman]].[^5] The federal court record shows Starchild as owner of the Virgin Islands trust company in 1976 to 1978 and as counsel in 1985, after the 1975 date Dovey gave for his death.[^2][^3]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023. The claim that he faked his death in 1975 is contradicted by the court record of his ownership of the Virgin Islands trust company in 1976 to 1978 and his appearance as counsel in 1985. Sole source for the passages so cited.
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[^2]: Wright, Marilyn. "Porno Ring Uses Church, Tax Laws." *Traverse City Record-Eagle,* 1977, reprinted in U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime. *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, Serial No. 12, 1977, pp. 86-87. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41153502_0041
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[^3]: *National Bank of Detroit v. Shelden,* 730 F.2d 421 (6th Cir. 1984). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/433085/national-bank-of-detroit-v-francis-d-shelden-the-trust-company-of-the/
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[^4]: *Detroit Bank v. Trust Co. of Virgin Islands, Ltd.,* 644 F. Supp. 444 (D.P.R. 1985); *Shelden v. Trust Co. of the Virgin Islands, Ltd.,* 535 F. Supp. 667 (D.P.R. 1982). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1559036/detroit-bank-v-trust-co-of-virgin-islands-ltd/
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[^5]: CourtListener case captions, *United States v. Starchild,* 1988-1990.
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[^1]: Wright, Marilyn. "Porno Ring Uses Church, Tax Laws." *Traverse City Record-Eagle,* 1977, reprinted in U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime. *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, Serial No. 12, 1977, pp. 82-83. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41153502_0041
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[^2]: *National Bank of Detroit v. Shelden,* 730 F.2d 421 (6th Cir. 1984). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/433085/national-bank-of-detroit-v-francis-d-shelden-the-trust-company-of-the/
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[^3]: *Detroit Bank v. Trust Co. of Virgin Islands, Ltd.,* 644 F. Supp. 444 (D.P.R. 1985); *Shelden v. Trust Co. of the Virgin Islands, Ltd.,* 535 F. Supp. 667 (D.P.R. 1982). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1559036/detroit-bank-v-trust-co-of-virgin-islands-ltd/
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[^4]: CourtListener case captions, *United States v. Starchild,* 1988-1990.
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[^5]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023.
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@ -9,22 +9,40 @@ tags:
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- Colorado
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- USA
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created: 2026-05-22
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updated: 2026-05-22
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updated: 2026-10-09
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summary: "Camden Rodriguez, aliases 'oHare' and 'carroteater,' was a Longmont, Colorado leader of Greggy's Cult charged in December 2025 in the Eastern District of New York with engaging in a child exploitation enterprise alongside four co-defendants."
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born: 2003
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location: "Longmont, Colorado"
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relations:
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- type: member_of
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with: "[[Greggy's Cult]]"
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role: "alleged leader"
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start: 2020-01
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end: 2021-01
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fn: 1
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---
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[[Camden Rodriguez]], aliases "oHare" and "carroteater," is a resident of [[Longmont, Colorado]] and a named leader of [[Greggy's Cult]] (also called the Cult of Greg), the online child exploitation network that operated on [[Discord]] from approximately January 2020 through January 2021. He was born approximately 2003 and was 22 at the time of his December 2025 indictment.
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### Federal Charges (United States v. Bermudez, 1:25-cr-00361)
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A federal grand jury in the [[Eastern District of New York]] returned an indictment unsealed on December 2, 2025, charging Rodriguez alongside [[Hector Bermudez]], [[Zachary Dosch]], [[Rumaldo Valdez]], and [[David Brilhante]]. The case number is 1:25-cr-00361 (PKC). The 10-count indictment charged: engaging in a child exploitation enterprise under [[18 U.S.C. § 2252A(g)]], conspiracy to produce child pornography, conspiracy to receive and distribute child pornography, and conspiracy to communicate interstate threats. The alleged criminal conduct covered January 2020 through January 2021.[^1]
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A federal grand jury in the [[Eastern District of New York]] returned an indictment unsealed on December 2, 2025, charging Rodriguez alongside [[Hector Bermudez]], [[Zachary Dosch]], [[Rumaldo Valdez]], and [[David Brilhante]], the four co-defendants named in the Justice Department's release. The case number is 1:25-cr-00361 (PKC). The 10-count indictment charged: engaging in a child exploitation enterprise under [[18 U.S.C. § 2252A(g)]], conspiracy to produce child pornography, conspiracy to receive and distribute child pornography, and conspiracy to communicate interstate threats. The alleged criminal conduct covered January 2020 through January 2021.[^1]
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Rodriguez was identified in one local news report as an "alleged leader" of Greggy's Cult. The group recruited minor victims through gaming platforms and social media and coerced them into producing [[CSAM]], using that material to compel continuing compliance including self-harm. Members of Greggy's Cult later became "prominent members" of the [[764 Network]], per DOJ's characterization in the December 2025 press release.[^1]
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No guilty plea or sentencing outcome for Rodriguez was publicly reported as of May 2026.
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### Arraignment, Detention and Release
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The docket records Rodriguez's arrest in the District of Colorado on December 2, 2025.[^2] The government's December 10 motion states that his detention hearing in Colorado was scheduled for that day.[^3]
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Rodriguez was arraigned in the Eastern District of New York on March 3, 2026 before Magistrate Judge [[Clay H. Kaminsky]], with not-guilty pleas entered on all counts. The government opposed bail on the record, and the court reserved its decision.[^2] After a detention hearing on March 6, 2026, the court set a $400,000 secured bond with two sureties, secured by one property, and Rodriguez was released.[^2]
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The December 2 detention letter states that, based on the investigation, Rodriguez was responsible for the technical aspects of taking over victims' computers, including developing and sending malicious code used to extort victims or to spam Discord servers with child sexual abuse material through bots. The letter states that one minor victim told investigators Rodriguez made money from computer hacking.[^4] The April 3, 2025 CyberTip described in the same letter states that a tipster reported Rodriguez, using the alias "oHare," was known for selling bots and login information and had developed video game malware that infected over 3,000 victim computers within an hour of its release online. The tipster's statements are unverified.[^4]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: DOJ OPA. "Five Leaders of 'Greggy's Cult' Charged with Sexually Exploiting Children on the Internet." December 2025. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/five-leaders-greggys-cult-charged-sexually-exploiting-children-internet; KDVR. "Longmont man, alleged leader of 'Greggy's Cult,' charged with sexually exploiting children." December 2025. https://kdvr.com/news/local/longmont-man-alleged-leader-of-greggys-cult-charged-with-sexually-exploiting-children/; United States v. Bermudez et al., 1:25-cr-00361 (PKC) (E.D.N.Y.). https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71984626/united-states-v-bermudez/
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[^2]: United States v. Bermudez et al., 1:25-cr-00361 (PKC) (E.D.N.Y.), CourtListener docket 71984626, entry dated December 2, 2025 (arrest in District of Colorado), arraignment minute entry of March 3, 2026 (entry 77), detention hearing minute entry of March 6, 2026 (entry 79), and sealed order setting conditions of release (entry 80). https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71984626/united-states-v-bermudez/
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[^3]: Government's letter appealing the release order and moving to stay, ECF 26, December 10, 2025, footnote 3. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nyed.538956/gov.uscourts.nyed.538956.26.0.pdf
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[^4]: Letter from AUSA Antoinette N. Rangel and Trial Attorney Gwendelynn Bills requesting a permanent order of detention, ECF 14, December 2, 2025, pages 5 and 6. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nyed.538956/gov.uscourts.nyed.538956.14.0.pdf
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@ -23,11 +23,16 @@ relations:
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with: "[[Father Bud's Boys Farm]]"
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role: "listed sponsor"
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fn: 1
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- type: funded
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with: "[[Trust Company of the Virgin Islands]]"
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role: "settlor of revocable trust, about two million dollars in securities"
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start: 1976-09
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fn: 3
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created: 2026-04-28
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updated: 2026-09-22
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updated: 2026-10-09
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---
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Francis Duffield Shelden, the bachelor heir of a prominent Detroit-area family, was a part-time university professor, a former director of the Cranbrook Institute of Science, and a board member of [[Boys Republic]], a residential center for troubled boys in Farmington Hills; a 1975 newspaper interview described him as devoting much of his time to Big Brothers, which later denied he had been connected with it. He was the sole owner of [[North Fox Island]], 835 acres in Leelanau County off Grand Traverse Bay, assessed at 312,000 dollars.[^1] His great-grandfather was [[Russell A. Alger]], governor of [[Michigan]] and Secretary of War.[^2]
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Francis Duffield Shelden, the bachelor heir of a prominent Detroit-area family, was a part-time university professor, a former director of the Cranbrook Institute of Science, and a board member of [[Boys Republic]], a residential center for troubled boys in Farmington Hills; a 1975 newspaper interview described him as devoting much of his time to Big Brothers, which later denied he had been connected with it. He was the sole owner of [[North Fox Island]], 835 acres in Leelanau County off Grand Traverse Bay, assessed at 312,000 dollars.[^1] The writer S. Dovey wrote that his great-grandfather was [[Russell A. Alger]], governor of [[Michigan]] and Secretary of War.[^2] In a deposition taken in Amsterdam in 1982 in litigation over his trust, Shelden testified that he was born in Detroit on September 5, 1928, the son of Alger Shelden; that he received a bachelor of arts degree from Yale University, served in the United States Air Force during the Korean War, received a master of science degree in geology from Wayne State University and completed the course work for a doctorate at the University of Michigan without finishing the thesis; and that he inherited considerable wealth from his father and from his grandfathers, Henry D. Shelden and Russell A. Alger.[^3]
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### Brother Paul's Children's Mission
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@ -37,7 +42,15 @@ After Richards's arrest in July 1976, in possession of pornographic films, he to
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### The Wider Network
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Richards's films led Tennessee authorities to raid Boys Farm Inc. near Alto, the [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] of the Episcopal priest Claudius I. "Bud" [[Claudius Vermilye|Vermilye]] Jr., who was indicted on sixteen counts; its list of more than 270 "active sponsors" included Shelden. Vermilye's eldest son had disappeared on July 5, 1974. In [[New Orleans]], the leader of Boy Scout [[Troop 137]], Richard Halverson, and twelve other men, including the Massachusetts industrialist [[Richard C. Jacobs]] of Jet Spray Corporation and the realtor Hugh Scott Mellor, were charged with conspiracy; Halverson, a volunteer probation officer, had drawn up applications for state and federal money for homes for boys, and the Louisiana and Tennessee welfare departments had paid for children placed with the groups. "It seems to be like spider webs strung out all over the nation," said the New Orleans juvenile detective Mason Spong. Correspondence and films seized in the raids came "from Australia and Canada and virtually every state in the Union."[^1]
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Richards's films led Tennessee authorities to raid Boys Farm Inc. near Alto, the [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] of the Episcopal priest Claudius I. "Bud" [[Claudius Vermilye|Vermilye]] Jr., who was indicted on sixteen counts; its list of more than 270 "active sponsors" included Shelden.[^4][^5] Vermilye's eldest son had disappeared on July 5, 1974. In [[New Orleans]], the leader of Boy Scout [[Troop 137]], Richard Halverson, and twelve other men, including the Massachusetts industrialist [[Richard C. Jacobs]] of Jet Spray Corporation and the realtor Hugh Scott Mellor, were charged with conspiracy; Halverson, a volunteer probation officer, had drawn up applications for state and federal money for homes for boys, and the Louisiana and Tennessee welfare departments had paid for children placed with the groups. "It seems to be like spider webs strung out all over the nation," said the New Orleans juvenile detective Mason Spong. Correspondence and films seized in the raids came "from Australia and Canada and virtually every state in the Union."[^1]
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### The Departure and the Virgin Islands Trust
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In a deposition taken in Amsterdam in 1982 in litigation over his trust, Shelden testified that in July 1976 he received a telephone call from Dyer Grossman, who told him that Gerald Richards was having severe "difficulties," that Richards might involve Shelden in them, and that Shelden might become the subject of blackmail by Richards. Shelden testified that Grossman "suggested that it might be wise for me to leave the country for awhile ... to await events." Grossman suggested that Shelden contact Adam Starchild, an offshore investment counselor in New Jersey, whom Shelden had never met. Shelden took his securities, which he valued at about two million dollars, from his bank safety deposit box to New Jersey, where they were lodged in a vault at the Mid-Atlantic Bank of New Jersey; a loan was obtained against some of the shares, and two bank accounts of between 30,000 and 40,000 dollars were opened, one in Shelden's name and one in Starchild's, which Shelden said was "so he would have some money for administering my affairs." Shelden then flew to Europe by way of Canada and the Bahamas.[^3]
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A meeting at Shelden's house in Antigua was attended by Shelden, his brother Alger Shelden, Jr., L. Bennett Young and Starchild. The trust instrument was signed on September 28, 1976, by Shelden as settlor and by the Trust Company of the Virgin Islands, Ltd., through Starchild, as trustee.[^3] In December 1976, Shelden testified, Starchild told him by telephone that the State of Michigan had issued criminal warrants for his arrest and that Starchild was coming under scrutiny by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.[^3]
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The opinion records the complaint's averment that Shelden was being sought by the FBI under a fugitive warrant and that his whereabouts were unknown to the National Bank of Detroit.[^3]
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### Amsterdam
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@ -46,4 +59,7 @@ Shelden settled in [[Amsterdam]], became a Dutch citizen, and was not extradited
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Wright, Marilyn. "Porno Ring Uses Church, Tax Laws," "Porn Ring Finds Gaps in Child Camp Laws" and "Porno Ring Weaves International 'Web'." *Traverse City Record-Eagle,* 1976-1977, reprinted in U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime. *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, Serial No. 12, 1977. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41153502_0041
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[^2]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023. Sole source for the passages so cited.
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[^2]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023.
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[^3]: *National Bank of Detroit v. Shelden,* 730 F.2d 421 (6th Cir. 1984) (Nos. 82-1737, 82-1905). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/433085/national-bank-of-detroit-v-francis-d-shelden-the-trust-company-of-the/
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[^4]: Marilyn Wright, *Traverse City Record-Eagle,* reprinted in U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime, *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, Serial No. 12, 1977, p. 88. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41153502_0041
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[^5]: "How Ruses Lure Victims to Child Pornographers," *Chicago Tribune,* May 17, 1977, Exhibit D-8, reprinted in *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* Serial No. 12, 1977, p. 440. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41153502_0041
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@ -10,29 +10,35 @@ relations:
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- type: employed_by
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with: "[[St. Joseph's Catholic School]]"
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role: "physical education teacher"
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fn: 2
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fn: 1
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- type: founded
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with: "[[Brother Paul's Children's Mission]]"
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role: "organizer and president"
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fn: 3
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fn: 2
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created: 2026-04-28
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updated: 2026-09-22
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updated: 2026-10-09
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---
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Gerald S. Richards, of Port Huron, Michigan, taught physical education at St. Joseph's Catholic School in Port Huron, was a businessman in the town and had been a candidate for local political office. He was president of [[Brother Paul's Children's Mission]] and director of its nature camp, and told police he was its organizer.[^2][^3] He was arrested in July 1976, pleaded guilty to criminal sexual conduct in the first degree, and by 1977 was serving a two-to-ten-year term at the State Prison of Southern Michigan at Jackson.[^2][^4]
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Gerald S. Richards, of Port Huron, Michigan, taught physical education at St. Joseph's Catholic School in Port Huron, was a businessman in the town and had been a candidate for local political office. He was president of [[Brother Paul's Children's Mission]] and director of its nature camp, and told police he was its organizer.[^1][^2] He was arrested in July 1976, pleaded guilty to criminal sexual conduct in the first degree, and by 1977 was serving a two-to-ten-year term at the State Prison of Southern Michigan at Jackson.[^1][^3]
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### Testimony to the Senate
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|
||||
On May 27, 1977, Richards testified under oath in Chicago before the Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency. He said his first contact with pornography came while he was in college, working nights in an adult bookstore from September 1969 to March 1972. In January 1973 he met a neighbor boy of 13 or 14, whom he filmed for two years without selling the material, and in January 1975 he began producing and selling child pornography, until about February 1976. Through an organization he met other men who swapped pictures and boys; he said he had access to about 30 boys, only two or three of them from Port Huron and the rest obtained from Pontiac and the Detroit area. He said he had pleaded guilty "to protect my models and exposure of my affair" with the boy, then 15, who was his partner in the operation. He described Better Life, "a philosophical group" run through the mail, as "the main organization in the [[United States]]" for the trade, and said that [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] in Tennessee "sold raw film to other men. They would bring it to me to process." He named among the customers he ended up with "Sheldon, Grossman, Keller," and said of [[Francis Shelden]]: "He was a friend of mine. He paid for my office."[^4]
|
||||
On May 27, 1977, Richards testified under oath in Chicago before the Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency. He said his first contact with pornography came while he was in college, working nights in an adult bookstore from September 1969 to March 1972. In January 1973 he met a neighbor boy of 13 or 14, whom he filmed for two years without selling the material, and in January 1975 he began producing and selling child pornography, until about February 1976. Through an organization he met other men who swapped pictures and boys; he said he had access to about 30 boys, only two or three of them from Port Huron and the rest obtained from Pontiac and the Detroit area. He said he had pleaded guilty "to protect my models and exposure of my affair" with the boy, then 15, who was his partner in the operation. He described Better Life, "a philosophical group" run through the mail, as "the main organization in the [[United States]]" for the trade, and said that [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] in Tennessee "sold raw film to other men. They would bring it to me to process." He named among the customers he ended up with "Sheldon, Grossman, Keller," and said of [[Francis Shelden]]: "He was a friend of mine. He paid for my office."[^3] Asked by Senator [[John Culver]] about the organizations of another witness before the subcommittee, Richards said the only one he knew of was "a movie film business," and that "It's now called F & F Distributors." Asked who led Better Life, he said that the name he knew the leader by "may be an alias" and that he believed the same man ran the Mail-O-Matic operations in Rocky Mount.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
In 1975 Richards answered an advertisement in the pedophile newsletter *Better Life Monthly,* of which Shelden was named by Richards as a staff writer, and [[Dyer Grossman]] came to Port Huron from [[New Jersey]] to help set up Brother Paul's. At his arrest police found a letter from Grossman proposing sites for "child care" organizations in Michigan, New Jersey, California, Arizona, Texas, Vermont, Washington, Oregon and the District of Columbia, noting that counties would pay up to 150 dollars a month per boy, state agencies up to 400 and federal agencies up to 700. Richards told police that the [[The Church of New Revelation|Church of the New Revelation]], the Ocean Living Institute, the Educational Foundation for Youth and Brother Paul's were all fronts.[^3]
|
||||
In 1975 Richards answered an advertisement in the pedophile newsletter *Better Life Monthly,* of which Shelden was named by Richards as a staff writer, and [[Dyer Grossman]] came to Port Huron from [[New Jersey]] to help set up Brother Paul's. At his arrest police found a letter from Grossman proposing sites for "child care" organizations in Michigan, New Jersey, California, Arizona, Texas, Vermont, Washington, Oregon and the District of Columbia, noting that counties would pay up to 150 dollars a month per boy, state agencies up to 400 and federal agencies up to 700. Richards told police that the [[The Church of New Revelation|Church of the New Revelation]], the Ocean Living Institute, the Educational Foundation for Youth and Brother Paul's were all fronts.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### The North Fox Island Trip
|
||||
|
||||
Richards was also described as a masseuse, magician and hypnotist, a Republican candidate, the operator of a naturopathy clinic in a commercial basement, and the driver of an orange Pinto marked "Jerry the Magician," and as having set up Brother Paul's Educational Entertainment Missions in 1970. The writer S. Dovey wrote that on July 12, 1976, he took four students aged 8 to 14 to a private airstrip from which Shelden flew them to [[North Fox Island]] for two nights; after one boy reported abuse, Richards was arrested on July 23, 1976, with photographs of naked boys and a letter warning Shelden to move files to the island. Dovey also wrote that he was sentenced on September 13, 1976, that he handed over the Grossman letter, dated July 19, 1976, in August 1976, and that he drew a diagram of a coast-to-coast network from prison. According to Dovey, he identified [[Claudius Vermilye]] as sending films for processing, and the scoutmaster [[Richard Halvorsen]] of [[Troop 137]], whose files were linked to Vermilye's farm and to [[John David Norman]]'s [[Delta Project]] by index cards on boys' sexual preferences, and described the exchange of boys as a "Cadet racket." [[Adam Starchild]], who incorporated Brother Paul's and the [[Ocean Living Institute]], was identified as [[Malcolm Willis McConahy]].[^1]
|
||||
Richards was also described as a masseuse, magician and hypnotist, a Republican candidate, the operator of a naturopathy clinic in a commercial basement, and the driver of an orange Pinto marked "Jerry the Magician," and as having set up Brother Paul's Educational Entertainment Missions in 1970. The writer S. Dovey wrote that on July 12, 1976, he took four students aged 8 to 14 to a private airstrip from which Shelden flew them to [[North Fox Island]] for two nights; after one boy reported abuse, Richards was arrested on July 23, 1976, with photographs of naked boys and a letter warning Shelden to move files to the island. Dovey also wrote that he was sentenced on September 13, 1976, that he handed over the Grossman letter, dated July 19, 1976, in August 1976, and that he drew a diagram of a coast-to-coast network from prison. According to Dovey, he identified [[Claudius Vermilye]] as sending films for processing, and the scoutmaster [[Richard Halvorsen]] of [[Troop 137]], whose files were linked to Vermilye's farm and to [[John David Norman]]'s [[Delta Project]] by index cards on boys' sexual preferences, and described the exchange of boys as a "Cadet racket." [[Adam Starchild]], who incorporated Brother Paul's and the [[Ocean Living Institute]], was identified as [[Malcolm Willis McConahy]].[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
Dovey gave his sentence as two to twenty years, described him as a high school gym teacher and described a grant of immunity, while Richards testified that he pleaded guilty and contemporaneous reports gave a two-to-ten-year term.[^1][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
In a deposition taken in Amsterdam in 1982, Francis Shelden testified that in July 1976 Dyer Grossman telephoned him to say that Richards was having severe "difficulties," that Richards might involve Shelden in them, and that Shelden might become the subject of blackmail by Richards.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023. It gives his sentence as two to twenty years, contradicted by contemporaneous reports of a two-to-ten-year term, and describes him as a high school gym teacher; its account of immunity is contradicted by his own testimony that he pleaded guilty. Sole source for the passages so cited.
|
||||
[^2]: Wright, Marilyn. *Traverse City Record-Eagle,* 1976-1977, reprinted in U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime. *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, Serial No. 12, 1977. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41153502_0041
|
||||
[^3]: Wright, Marilyn, *Traverse City Record-Eagle,* and *Chicago Tribune,* May 1977, both reprinted in *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* Serial No. 12, 1977, and in U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency. *Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation,* hearings, 1977.
|
||||
[^4]: Testimony of Gerald S. Richards, Chicago, May 27, 1977, in *Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, 1977, pp. 34-41. https://archive.org/details/protectionofchil00unit
|
||||
[^1]: Wright, Marilyn. *Traverse City Record-Eagle,* 1976-1977, reprinted in U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime. *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, Serial No. 12, 1977. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41153502_0041
|
||||
[^2]: Wright, Marilyn, *Traverse City Record-Eagle,* and *Chicago Tribune,* May 1977, both reprinted in *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* Serial No. 12, 1977, and in U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency. *Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation,* hearings, 1977.
|
||||
[^3]: Testimony of Gerald S. Richards, Chicago, May 27, 1977, in *Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, 1977, pp. 34-46. https://archive.org/details/protectionofchil00unit
|
||||
[^4]: Testimony of Gerald S. Richards, Chicago, May 27, 1977, in U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency, *Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, 1977, pp. 43-44. https://archive.org/details/protectionofchil00unit
|
||||
[^5]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023.
|
||||
[^6]: *National Bank of Detroit v. Shelden,* 730 F.2d 421 (6th Cir. 1984) (Nos. 82-1737, 82-1905). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/433085/national-bank-of-detroit-v-francis-d-shelden-the-trust-company-of-the/
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -14,14 +14,14 @@ relations:
|
|||
- type: partner_of
|
||||
with: "[[Marleen De Cokere]]"
|
||||
role: "companion"
|
||||
fn: 5
|
||||
fn: 4
|
||||
- type: director_of
|
||||
with: "[[Achats Services Commerces]]"
|
||||
start: 1994
|
||||
role: "de facto manager"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
created: 2026-04-28
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-09
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Michel Nihoul, a Brussels businessman and fraudster, was arrested in August 1996 in the investigation of [[Marc Dutroux]] and for years was held to be the man who connected Dutroux to a protected network. The Belgian parliamentary commission of inquiry into the Dutroux affair devoted a section of its 1998 report to "the relational network of M. Nihoul."[^1]
|
||||
|
|
@ -40,17 +40,17 @@ In 1995 and 1996 Nihoul was an informant of the gendarmerie's BSR in Dinant; the
|
|||
|
||||
### ASCO and the Dutroux Case
|
||||
|
||||
[[Achats Services Commerces]] (ASCO) was founded on July 2, 1991, at Wasmes by the operator of Le Dolo, Nihoul's companion and a third Dolo client, went into voluntary liquidation on June 23, 1995, and was declared bankrupt by the commercial court of Mons on October 9, 1995; Nihoul was at least its de facto manager in 1994, and the commission linked the company to the reports of white Mercedes cars.[^1] He had met Dutroux a year before his arrest through Lelièvre, to whom he sold drugs. [[Michelle Martin]] told investigators that Dutroux had been in frequent contact with Nihoul around the abduction of Laetitia Delhez, and Dutroux said Nihoul was looking for girls for a Belgian prostitution network. Nihoul was led from the courthouse at Neufchâteau on August 16, 1996, to shouts of "à mort." His companion [[Marleen De Cokere]] was arrested in late September. His warrant in the Dutroux case was lifted in January 1997.[^3][^5] In an interview with *Der Spiegel* in 2001, in his two-room flat in Jette with De Cokere beside him, Nihoul said of children, "I never did anything with children. I love children," and that Dutroux had taken the girls "for his own consumption." The magazine reported that the investigation files showed Dutroux had asked his advice on getting into the trade in girls and that Nihoul had advised him to organize sadomasochistic parties, which Nihoul said he had understood to mean adults. He spoke of the group-sex parties he and De Cokere had organized, "but with style," attended by influential politicians and officials at Le Dolo and Faulx-les-Tombes, and said: "Ich habe die Regierung in der Hand" (I have the government in hand). For 20,000 marks more he offered "a sitting minister who is involved in a murder," and, for a six-figure sum, a photograph of the then Prince Albert with a naked sixteen-year-old taken on the second floor of the Mirano club twenty years earlier.[^6] [[Regina Louf]], the witness X1, alleged that he organized parties at which children were abused; the prosecutors-general closed the files opened on her testimony in April 1998.[^7]
|
||||
[[Achats Services Commerces]] (ASCO) was founded on July 2, 1991, at Wasmes by the operator of Le Dolo, Nihoul's companion and a third Dolo client, went into voluntary liquidation on June 23, 1995, and was declared bankrupt by the commercial court of Mons on October 9, 1995; Nihoul was at least its de facto manager in 1994, and the commission linked the company to the reports of white Mercedes cars.[^1] He had met Dutroux a year before his arrest through Lelièvre, to whom he sold drugs. [[Michelle Martin]] told investigators that Dutroux had been in frequent contact with Nihoul around the abduction of Laetitia Delhez, and Dutroux said Nihoul was looking for girls for a Belgian prostitution network. Nihoul was led from the courthouse at Neufchâteau on August 16, 1996, to shouts of "à mort." His companion [[Marleen De Cokere]] was arrested in late September. His warrant in the Dutroux case was lifted in January 1997.[^3][^4] In an interview with *Der Spiegel* in 2001, in his two-room flat in Jette with De Cokere beside him, Nihoul said of children, "I never did anything with children. I love children," and that Dutroux had taken the girls "for his own consumption." The magazine reported that the investigation files showed Dutroux had asked his advice on getting into the trade in girls and that Nihoul had advised him to organize sadomasochistic parties, which Nihoul said he had understood to mean adults. He spoke of the group-sex parties he and De Cokere had organized, "but with style," attended by influential politicians and officials at Le Dolo and Faulx-les-Tombes, and said: "Ich habe die Regierung in der Hand" (I have the government in hand). For 20,000 marks more he offered "a sitting minister who is involved in a murder," and, for a six-figure sum, a photograph of the then Prince Albert with a naked sixteen-year-old taken on the second floor of the Mirano club twenty years earlier.[^5] [[Regina Louf]], the witness X1, alleged that he organized parties at which children were abused; the prosecutors-general closed the files opened on her testimony in April 1998.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
At the trial in Arlon in 2004, Dutroux accused Nihoul of being his link to a ring kidnapping girls for prostitution, which Nihoul denied. Véronique Laurent, convicted of ordering the killing of her husband, [[Michel Piro]], testified that Nihoul had come to their bar, La Terrasse, four or five times.[^8] Only seven of the twelve jurors found him guilty of the abductions, and the professional judges acquitted him of every charge connected with the children; on June 22, 2004, he was sentenced to five years for drug trafficking and criminal association. He left Saint-Gilles prison on parole on April 28, 2006, and retired with his companion to the Belgian coast, where he died on October 23, 2019.[^3][^4]
|
||||
At the trial in Arlon in 2004, Dutroux accused Nihoul of being his link to a ring kidnapping girls for prostitution, which Nihoul denied. Véronique Laurent, convicted of ordering the killing of her husband, [[Michel Piro]], testified that Nihoul had come to their bar, La Terrasse, four or five times.[^7] Only seven of the twelve jurors found him guilty of the abductions, and the professional judges acquitted him of every charge connected with the children; the court had returned the jury to consider a lesser charge of complicity in the kidnappings, on which it acquitted him, and the jury convicted him of membership of a gang that smuggled drugs and people into Belgium.[^8] On June 22, 2004, he was sentenced to five years for drug trafficking and criminal association. He left Saint-Gilles prison on parole on April 28, 2006, and retired with his companion to the Belgian coast, where he died on October 23, 2019.[^3][^8]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Chambre des Représentants de Belgique. *Enquête parlementaire sur la manière dont l'enquête, dans ses volets policiers et judiciaires, a été menée dans l'affaire Dutroux-Nihoul et consorts,* rapport complémentaire, Doc. 713/8-96/97, February 16, 1998, section 4, "Le réseau relationnel de M. Nihoul," pp. 126-145, and the list of indications from the report of April 14, 1997 (Doc. 713/6-96/97, pp. 186-188). https://www.dekamer.be/kvvcr/pdf_sections/comm/dutroux/49K0713008.pdf
|
||||
[^2]: "Michel Nihoul: Lügner, Betrüger, Frauenheld, aber kein Pädophiler." dpa, *Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung,* FAZ.NET, May 17, 2004.
|
||||
[^3]: "Michel Nihoul est décédé." *La Libre Belgique,* October 23, 2019.
|
||||
[^4]: "Arlon, 22 juin 2004, l'épilogue." *La Libre Belgique,* June 22, 2005; "Notorious child rapist-murderer convicted." Associated Press via NBC News, June 17, 2004. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/5233011
|
||||
[^5]: "Belgian pedophile case." United Press International, September 24, 1996. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1996/09/24/Belgian-pedophile-case/1297843537600/
|
||||
[^6]: Smoltczyk, Alexander. "Im Netz der Dossiers." *Der Spiegel,* no. 42/2001, October 14, 2001; quotations translated from the German. https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/im-netz-der-dossiers-a-c9fe5b47-0002-0001-0000-000020353850
|
||||
[^7]: Sénat de Belgique. Proposition visant à instituer une commission d'enquête parlementaire chargée d'enquêter sur l'éloignement de deux enquêteurs de la cellule d'enquête bruxelloise « Neufchâteau », déposée par M. Frans Lozie, Doc. 2-563/1, October 9, 2000.
|
||||
[^8]: Hovine, Annick. "La cour d'assises fait la tournée des bars de Charleroi." *La Libre Belgique,* April 28, 2004.
|
||||
[^3]: "Michel Nihoul est décédé." *La Libre Belgique,* October 23, 2019; translated from the French. https://www.lalibre.be/belgique/societe/michel-nihoul-est-decede-5db04ec39978e218e36b29be
|
||||
[^4]: "Belgian pedophile case." United Press International, September 24, 1996. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1996/09/24/Belgian-pedophile-case/1297843537600/
|
||||
[^5]: Smoltczyk, Alexander. "Im Netz der Dossiers." *Der Spiegel,* no. 42/2001, October 14, 2001; quotations translated from the German. https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/im-netz-der-dossiers-a-c9fe5b47-0002-0001-0000-000020353850
|
||||
[^6]: Sénat de Belgique. Proposition visant à instituer une commission d'enquête parlementaire chargée d'enquêter sur l'éloignement de deux enquêteurs de la cellule d'enquête bruxelloise « Neufchâteau », déposée par M. Frans Lozie, Doc. 2-563/1, October 9, 2000.
|
||||
[^7]: Hovine, Annick. "La cour d'assises fait la tournée des bars de Charleroi." *La Libre Belgique,* April 28, 2004.
|
||||
[^8]: Associated Press. "Notorious child rapist-murderer convicted." NBC News, June 17, 2004. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/5233011 ; "'Most hated' Belgian in jail for life." Al Jazeera, June 22, 2004. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2004/6/22/most-hated-belgian-in-jail-for-life
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -6,50 +6,59 @@ tags:
|
|||
summary: "Manuel Schadwald was a 12-year-old German boy who disappeared from Berlin in July 1993, becoming one of Europe's most infamous missing child cases and a pivotal figure in exposing international child trafficking networks."
|
||||
born: 1981
|
||||
location: "Berlin, Germany"
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-09
|
||||
---
|
||||
Manuel Schadwald was a 12-year-old German boy who disappeared from Berlin in July 1993, becoming one of Europe's most infamous missing child cases and a pivotal figure in exposing international child trafficking networks. Born in 1981, Schadwald lived in Berlin with his family until his mysterious disappearance, which would eventually reveal connections between German, Dutch, and British child trafficking operations and implicate senior government officials in these criminal networks.[^1]
|
||||
Manuel Schadwald was a 12-year-old German boy who disappeared from Berlin on July 24, 1993,[^1] becoming one of Europe's most infamous missing child cases and a pivotal figure in exposing international child trafficking networks. Born in 1981, Schadwald lived in Berlin with his family until his mysterious disappearance, which would eventually reveal connections between German, Dutch, and British child trafficking operations and implicate senior government officials in these criminal networks.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### Initial Investigation and Police Response
|
||||
|
||||
When Manuel Schadwald was first reported missing in July 1993, German authorities initially treated him as a runaway, a common response that delayed serious investigation for over a year.[^1]
|
||||
When Manuel Schadwald was first reported missing in July 1993, German authorities initially treated him as a runaway, a common response that delayed serious investigation for over a year.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
The case gained traction in 1994 when three teenagers came forward to Dutch police with stories of being trafficked into the Rotterdam sex trade. These teenagers, who had been prostituting themselves on the streets of Hamburg, reported being approached by two Dutchmen who offered them large sums of money to travel to Rotterdam to film pornography. Upon arrival, their passports were seized, and they were forced to work off exorbitant travel costs in a brothel owned by [[Lothar Glandorf]]. While working there, they met a boy who identified himself as Manuel Schadwald.[^2]
|
||||
The case gained traction in 1994 when three teenagers came forward to Dutch police with stories of being trafficked into the Rotterdam sex trade. These teenagers, who had been prostituting themselves on the streets of Hamburg, reported being approached by two Dutchmen who offered them large sums of money to travel to Rotterdam to film pornography. Upon arrival, their passports were seized, and they were forced to work off exorbitant travel costs in a brothel owned by [[Lothar Glandorf]]. While working there, they met a boy who identified himself as Manuel Schadwald.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### Witness Testimony and Identification
|
||||
|
||||
Multiple witnesses provided consistent testimony about seeing Manuel Schadwald in Glandorf's Rotterdam brothels. The teenagers from Hamburg were not the only witnesses; a third teenager from Berlin also came forward with a similar story, confirming he had been taken to Rotterdam and forced to work in Glandorf's brothel, where he identified Schadwald among the children being exploited there.[^2]
|
||||
Multiple witnesses provided consistent testimony about seeing Manuel Schadwald in Glandorf's Rotterdam brothels. The teenagers from Hamburg were not the only witnesses; a third teenager from Berlin also came forward with a similar story, confirming he had been taken to Rotterdam and forced to work in Glandorf's brothel, where he identified Schadwald among the children being exploited there.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### The HIK Investigation and Surveillance Evidence
|
||||
|
||||
The Schadwald case became the focus of the [[HIK Investigation]] launched by Dutch authorities in September 1994. This investigation placed wiretaps on Glandorf's phone and assigned surveillance teams to monitor his movements. The surveillance produced crucial evidence when team members observed Glandorf in the company of a boy they identified as Manuel Schadwald but inexplicably took no action. This observation was never reported to German authorities and was deliberately omitted from the final HIK report.[^3]
|
||||
The Schadwald case became the focus of the [[HIK Investigation]] launched by Dutch authorities in September 1994. This investigation placed wiretaps on Glandorf's phone and assigned surveillance teams to monitor his movements. The surveillance produced crucial evidence when team members observed Glandorf in the company of a boy they identified as Manuel Schadwald but inexplicably took no action. This observation was never reported to German authorities and was deliberately omitted from the final HIK report.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### International Trafficking Network Connections
|
||||
|
||||
The investigation into Schadwald's disappearance revealed extensive connections between different trafficking networks operating across Europe. Evidence emerged that Glandorf was not acting alone but was part of a larger network that included British traffickers like [[Warwick Spinks]], who operated boy brothels in Amsterdam's Spuistraat district.[^4]
|
||||
The investigation into Schadwald's disappearance revealed extensive connections between different trafficking networks operating across Europe. [[The Guardian]] reported on July 31, 1998 that [[Warwick Spinks]]'s name had been found among details of child pornography customers in a police raid on the Amsterdam flat of [[Gerrit-Jan Ulrich]] and among the possessions of [[Robbie Van Der Plancken]]; Spinks, who managed the [[Gay Palace]] on Spuistraat in the late 1980s,[^5] told the paper he had known two men called Robbie and denied involvement.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Government Connections and Official Protection
|
||||
|
||||
Wiretap evidence from the [[HIK Investigation]] captured conversations between Glandorf and a senior Dutch government official referred to as "Joris." In these conversations, "Joris" sought Glandorf's advice on smuggling children across borders and inquired about the availability of boys for sexual exploitation.[^5]
|
||||
Wiretap evidence from the HIK Investigation captured conversations between Glandorf and a senior Dutch government official referred to as "Joris." In these conversations, "Joris" sought Glandorf's advice on smuggling children across borders and inquired about the availability of boys for sexual exploitation.[^7]
|
||||
|
||||
### Subsequent Developments and Theories
|
||||
|
||||
As the investigation continued, various theories emerged about Schadwald's ultimate fate. Some witnesses suggested that Schadwald had been sold to British child pornographers in Amsterdam, specifically to [[Warwick Spinks]]' operation. A former boy prostitute of Glandorf's named [[Robbie Van Der Plancken]], who later became an exploiter himself, claimed that Glandorf had sold Schadwald to Spinks in Amsterdam.[^6]
|
||||
As the investigation continued, various theories emerged about Schadwald's ultimate fate. Some witnesses suggested that Schadwald had been sold to British child pornographers in Amsterdam, specifically to Warwick Spinks' operation. [[Nick Davies]] found that, in an unbroadcast section of his interview with Dutch television, Robbie Van Der Plancken, a former boy prostitute of Glandorf's who later became an exploiter himself, had claimed that some time after being taken from Berlin by Lothar Glandorf, Manuel had been sold to Warwick Spinks in Amsterdam.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Intelligence agencies from various countries began providing information about Schadwald's case, though much of this information appeared to be conflicting or potentially disinformation. German intelligence sources suggested connections to Stasi operations, while Dutch intelligence provided specific details about Schadwald allegedly being killed on a yacht called "der Apollo" owned by [[Gerrit-Jan Ulrich]] and his business partner Leo Van Gasselt.[^7]
|
||||
Dutch and German police later set about finding him, some four years after his disappearance, and failed. Davies wrote that Manuel Schadwald has never been found.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
Davies reported that a bar owner on Spuistraat told him he was "pretty sure he had seen Manuel once with the Englishman Warwick Spinks," and then said he could easily have been mistaken.[^1] Davies wrote that Frank said Spinks had once hinted to him that a German boy named Manny had been murdered, and that Frank told police of Spinks's monthly trips to Berlin, often with boys from Amsterdam.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
On May 2, 1998 the [[Algemeen Dagblad]] reported that the boy, who had disappeared in Berlin in 1993 aged 12, was thought to have reached the boys' brothel of Lothar G. and Henk S. in Rotterdam through a German identified as Ludwig A. (44) and a Briton identified as Warwick S.[^8] The paper gave no surname for either man. The records found do not establish whether Warwick S. is Warwick Spinks.
|
||||
|
||||
Intelligence agencies from various countries began providing information about Schadwald's case, though much of this information appeared to be conflicting or potentially disinformation. German intelligence sources suggested connections to Stasi operations, while Dutch intelligence provided specific details about Schadwald allegedly being killed on a yacht called "der Apollo" owned by Gerrit-Jan Ulrich and his business partner Leo Van Gasselt.[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Zandvoort Connection and Apollo Network
|
||||
|
||||
The Schadwald case became further complicated by its connection to the [[Apollo Bulletin Board Service]] investigation in Zandvoort. [[Gerrit-Jan Ulrich]], who administered this major child pornography distribution network, was found murdered in Italy in June 1998. The discovery of the [[Apollo Bulletin Board Service]] and its connections to various trafficking operations suggested that Schadwald may have been exploited through this extensive distribution network for child pornography.[^8]
|
||||
The Schadwald case became further complicated by its connection to the [[Apollo Bulletin Board Service]] investigation in Zandvoort. Gerrit-Jan Ulrich, who administered this major child pornography distribution network, was found murdered in Italy in June 1998. The discovery of the Apollo Bulletin Board Service and its connections to various trafficking operations suggested that Schadwald may have been exploited through this extensive distribution network for child pornography.[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
The Apollo investigation revealed a list of 300 names described as "an international Who's Who of suspected paedophiles."[^8]
|
||||
The Apollo investigation revealed a list of 300 names described as "an international Who's Who of suspected paedophiles."[^10]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: 'Paedophile network trafficks young boys across Europe', Nick Davies, Previously unpublished, October 1 1998; Dutch police investigation files on HIK case, 1994-1995
|
||||
[^2]: 'When sex abuse can lead to murder', The Guardian, November 27 2000; HIK investigation witness testimony, 1994
|
||||
[^3]: Dutch police surveillance reports and HIK investigation files, 1994-1995; 'Dutch Joris Demmink Affair Reveals Heroin, Cocaine and Pedophile Entrapment Affairs', ISGP-Studies, October 31 2014
|
||||
[^4]: International trafficking network connections, HIK investigation files, 1994-1995; 'Fugitive Briton linked to Dutch child porn hits at witch-hunt from Prague refuge', The Guardian, July 31 1998
|
||||
[^5]: Wiretap transcripts from HIK investigation, 1994; 'When sex abuse can lead to murder', The Guardian, November 27 2000
|
||||
[^6]: 'Morkhoven houdt kroongetuige in zaak-Schadwald achter de hand'('Morkhoven keeps a key witness in the Schadwald case in reserve'), De Morgen, 21 september 1998
|
||||
[^7]: Intelligence agency information on Schadwald case, 1998-2015; 'Die verlorenen Kinder'('The Lost Children'), Welt, July 12 2015
|
||||
[^8]: 'No kind of Hero', Tim Hulse, The Independent, September 13 1998; Apollo investigation files, 1998
|
||||
[^1]: Nick Davies, "Paedophile networks traffick young boys across Europe," dated October 1, 1998 and marked "Previously unpublished," https://www.nickdavies.net/1998/10/01/paedophile-network-trafficks-young-boys-across-europe/
|
||||
[^2]: 'Paedophile network trafficks young boys across Europe', Nick Davies, Previously unpublished, October 1 1998; Dutch police investigation files on HIK case, 1994-1995
|
||||
[^3]: 'When sex abuse can lead to murder', The Guardian, November 27 2000; HIK investigation witness testimony, 1994
|
||||
[^4]: Dutch police surveillance reports and HIK investigation files, 1994-1995; 'Dutch Joris Demmink Affair Reveals Heroin, Cocaine and Pedophile Entrapment Affairs', ISGP-Studies, October 31 2014
|
||||
[^5]: Nick Davies, "Paedophilia is easy 2: how a paedophile murder inquiry fell apart," The Guardian, November 27, 2000, https://www.nickdavies.net/2000/11/27/paedophilia-is-easy-2-how-a-paedophile-murder-inquiry-fell-apart/
|
||||
[^6]: Kate Connolly and Owen Bowcott, "Fugitive Briton linked to Dutch child porn hits at 'witch-hunt' from Prague refuge," The Guardian, July 31, 1998, page 15.
|
||||
[^7]: Wiretap transcripts from HIK investigation, 1994; 'When sex abuse can lead to murder', The Guardian, November 27 2000
|
||||
[^8]: Algemeen Dagblad, "Politie onderzoekt 'politieschandaal'," May 2, 1998, Delpher KBPERS01:003153002:mpeg21:a00051, https://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=KBPERS01:003153002:mpeg21:a00051 Original: "Vermoed wordt dat de scholier daar terecht is gekomen via de Duitser Ludwig A. (44) en de Brit Warwick S." [It is suspected that the schoolboy ended up there via the German Ludwig A. (44) and the Briton Warwick S.]; "Diverse getuigen hebben hem kort daarna gezien in het jongensbordeel van Lothar G. en Henk S." [Several witnesses saw him shortly afterwards in the boys' brothel of Lothar G. and Henk S.]
|
||||
[^9]: Intelligence agency information on Schadwald case, 1998-2015; 'Die verlorenen Kinder'('The Lost Children'), Welt, July 12 2015
|
||||
[^10]: 'No kind of Hero', Tim Hulse, The Independent, September 13 1998; Apollo investigation files, 1998
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -6,16 +6,17 @@ tags:
|
|||
- Belgium
|
||||
- Dutroux
|
||||
summary: "Robbie Van Der Plancken was a Belgian national who began as a child prostitute working for Lothar Glandorf and later 'graduated to become an exploiter himself' in the European child trafficking and pornography network."
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-09
|
||||
---
|
||||
Robbie Van Der Plancken was a Belgian national who began as a child prostitute working for [[Lothar Glandorf]] and later "graduated to become an exploiter himself" in the European child trafficking and pornography network. He emerged as a central figure connecting multiple major investigations during the 1990s, including the [[Marc Dutroux]] case and the [[Apollo Bulletin Board Service]]. Van Der Plancken operated across various European countries, maintaining connections to key figures in the international pedophile network while establishing himself as both a victim turned perpetrator and a crucial witness to systemic child exploitation operations spanning [[Belgium]], [[Germany]], [[Netherlands]], and [[Italy]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Van Der Plancken's criminal activities began under the tutelage of Lothar Glandorf, who operated a sophisticated child trafficking operation targeting vulnerable boys from [[Berlin]]. His progression from victim to perpetrator exemplified the cycle of abuse within these networks, where former victims often became recruiters and abusers themselves. This pattern was common in the European child trafficking scene, where established networks leveraged the trauma and dependency of their victims to ensure continued participation and silence. His position within multiple overlapping networks made him a valuable asset for trafficking operations while simultaneously making him a target for both law enforcement and rival criminal elements seeking to eliminate potential witnesses.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
The Zandvoort network investigation in 1998 revealed Van Der Plancken as "a central figure" in what was then "the world's largest online distributor of sadomasochist child pornography, served from a website called [[Apollo Bulletin Board Service]] hosted in the Dutch seaside resort town of Zandvoort." This operation represented a significant evolution in child exploitation, moving from physical distribution to digital platforms that could reach global audiences while maintaining relative anonymity for the operators.[^1]
|
||||
The Zandvoort network investigation in 1998 revealed Van Der Plancken as "a central figure" in what was then "the world's largest online distributor of sadomasochist child pornography, served from a website called Apollo Bulletin Board Service hosted in the Dutch seaside resort town of Zandvoort." This operation represented a significant evolution in child exploitation, moving from physical distribution to digital platforms that could reach global audiences while maintaining relative anonymity for the operators.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Key Criminal Activities and Major Cases
|
||||
|
||||
Van Der Plancken admitted to helping Lothar Glandorf transport [[Manuel Schadwald]] from Berlin to Rotterdam, then stated in an unaired interview with Dutch reporters that "the boy had then been sold to [[Warwick Spinks]] in Amsterdam." Warwick Spinks' name was later found in an address book belonging to Robbie Van Der Plancken, confirming the business relationship between these key figures in the European child exploitation scene.[^1]
|
||||
Van Der Plancken admitted to helping Lothar Glandorf transport [[Manuel Schadwald]] from Berlin to Rotterdam, then, according to [[Nick Davies]], who found the passage in an unbroadcast section of the interview with Dutch television, claimed that some time after being taken from Berlin by Lothar Glandorf, Manuel had been sold to the Englishman [[Warwick Spinks]] in Amsterdam.[^2] The Guardian reported on July 31, 1998 that Spinks's name appeared among the possessions of Robbie Van Der Plancken. Spinks denied involvement and said he had known two men called Robbie, one a Belgian he used to meet in Amsterdam.[^3] S. Dovey wrote that the name was found in an address book and that this confirmed a business relationship.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
The murder investigation of [[Gerrit-Jan Ulrich]] in June 1998 further exposed Van Der Plancken's criminal connections. Ulrich, a 49-year-old German computer technician who owned a computer store called [[Cube Hardware]], was found "shot multiple times" in an Italian forest. Van Der Plancken was arrested by Italian police as a suspect in this murder, which occurred shortly after Ulrich had been observed during a television interview with Van Der Plancken conducted by Belgian public broadcaster RTBF. The timing of Ulrich's death, coming just days after his exposure during the investigation, suggested a possible connection to efforts to silence witnesses or eliminate loose ends within the trafficking network.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -23,12 +24,15 @@ Van Der Plancken maintained regular presence at the [[G-Force nightclub]] in [[A
|
|||
|
||||
### Legal Consequences and Potential Witness Testimony
|
||||
|
||||
Following his arrest for the murder of Gerrit-Jan Ulrich, Van Der Plancken faced imprisonment in [[Italy]] while potentially possessing explosive information about broader criminal networks. His father made dramatic statements to the media, claiming: "If Robby spoke, the Dutroux case wouldn't be anything against it." This statement suggested that Van Der Plancken possessed knowledge that could significantly impact one of Europe's most notorious child abuse and murder cases, potentially implicating higher-level figures or revealing connections between seemingly disparate criminal operations. The father further alleged that "There is a snuff video in which a boy from Berlin dies. I saw it and recognized my son as the actor in it," suggesting Van Der Plancken's possible involvement in the production of extreme child abuse material.[^1]
|
||||
Following his arrest for the murder of Gerrit-Jan Ulrich, Van Der Plancken faced imprisonment in Italy while potentially possessing explosive information about broader criminal networks. His father made dramatic statements to the media, claiming: "If Robby spoke, the Dutroux case wouldn't be anything against it." This statement suggested that Van Der Plancken possessed knowledge that could significantly impact one of Europe's most notorious child abuse and murder cases, potentially implicating higher-level figures or revealing connections between seemingly disparate criminal operations. The father further alleged that "There is a snuff video in which a boy from Berlin dies. I saw it and recognized my son as the actor in it," suggesting Van Der Plancken's possible involvement in the production of extreme child abuse material.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
German authorities reported that "the alleged child molester Robby van der Plancken, who is imprisoned in Italy because he is said to have shot his partner Gerrit Jan Ulrich, can be seen in at least five Gero films." This connection to Gero-Video, a known producer of child pornography, further established Van Der Plancken's role in the commercial exploitation of children across multiple production and distribution networks. The international scope of these operations - spanning Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, and Italy - demonstrated the challenges faced by law enforcement in investigating and prosecuting cross-border criminal enterprises that exploited jurisdictional boundaries and legal differences between countries.[^1]
|
||||
German authorities reported that "the alleged child molester Robby van der Plancken, who is imprisoned in Italy because he is said to have shot his partner Gerrit Jan Ulrich, can be seen in at least five Gero films." [[Der Spiegel]] reported in August 1998 that investigators had found nothing punishable at [[Gero-Video]] Produktions GmbH, a Düsseldorf distributor, that several proceedings against it had been discontinued, and that the firm's owner said it bought the films in 1993 from a Dutch production company.[^4] The international scope of these operations, spanning Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy, demonstrated the challenges faced by law enforcement in investigating and prosecuting cross-border criminal enterprises that exploited jurisdictional boundaries and legal differences between countries.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
In February 2001, investigators tracked down a transvestite in [[Amsterdam]] named Robert Jan Warmerdam, who "claimed to have known not only Robbie Van Der Plancken, but also Marc Dutroux." [^1]
|
||||
In February 2001, investigators tracked down a transvestite in Amsterdam named Robert Jan Warmerdam, who "claimed to have known not only Robbie Van Der Plancken, but also Marc Dutroux." [^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). Eye of the Chickenhawk. United States: Thehotstar.
|
||||
[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). Eye of the Chickenhawk. United States: Thehotstar.
|
||||
[^2]: Nick Davies, "Paedophile networks traffick young boys across Europe," dated October 1, 1998 and marked "Previously unpublished," https://www.nickdavies.net/1998/10/01/paedophile-network-trafficks-young-boys-across-europe/
|
||||
[^3]: Kate Connolly and Owen Bowcott, "Fugitive Briton linked to Dutch child porn hits at 'witch-hunt' from Prague refuge," The Guardian, July 31, 1998, page 15.
|
||||
[^4]: "Nur die kleinen Fische," Der Spiegel 32/1998, August 2, 1998, https://www.spiegel.de/politik/nur-die-kleinen-fische-a-fc226181-0002-0001-0000-000007956187
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -6,37 +6,133 @@ tags:
|
|||
- OrganizedCrime
|
||||
- ChildTrafficking
|
||||
- Amsterdam
|
||||
summary: "British procurer who ran the Gay Palace on Amsterdam's Spuistraat, was jailed in 1995 for abducting a London runaway and selling him to a brothel, and told an undercover officer about snuff films."
|
||||
- Prague
|
||||
- Extradition
|
||||
aliases:
|
||||
- "Warwick Spinks"
|
||||
- "Warwick Andrew Spinks"
|
||||
- "Spinks"
|
||||
- "Willem"
|
||||
- "Willem Van Wijk"
|
||||
- "William Spinks"
|
||||
summary: "British procurer who managed the Gay Palace on Amsterdam's Spuistraat, was convicted at Lewes in 1995 of offences against boys, went missing in 1997, and was arrested in Prague in 2012."
|
||||
relations:
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Gay Palace]]"
|
||||
role: "managed the Amsterdam club in the late 1980s"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: investigated
|
||||
with: "[[Metropolitan Police]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
start: 1990
|
||||
role: "Obscene Publications Squad inquiry from October 1990; Paedophilia Unit raid of his Hastings flat in 1993"
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: investigated
|
||||
with: "[[Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre]]"
|
||||
reverse: true
|
||||
end: 2012
|
||||
role: "traced to Prague; arrested at Heathrow Airport on November 15, 2012"
|
||||
fn: 3
|
||||
- type: subject_of
|
||||
with: "[[Operation Framework]]"
|
||||
role: "principal target of the Scotland Yard and Dutch inquiry into alleged snuff films"
|
||||
fn: 2
|
||||
fn: 1
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Prague Connections]]"
|
||||
start: 1998
|
||||
role: "accommodation agency for foreign visitors in Prague, per The Guardian"
|
||||
fn: 6
|
||||
- type: head_of
|
||||
with: "[[Toucan Apartments]]"
|
||||
end: 2012
|
||||
role: "rental service in Prague before his arrest, per James Kirchick"
|
||||
fn: 10
|
||||
- type: relative_of
|
||||
with: "[[Terry Spinks]]"
|
||||
role: "described by The Guardian in 1998 as a nephew of the Olympic boxer"
|
||||
fn: 6
|
||||
created: 2026-04-28
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-09
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Warwick Spinks, a Londoner who had run a mail-order pornography business from [[Brighton]], managed the [[Gay Palace]] at 44 Spuistraat in [[Amsterdam]] in the late 1980s, across the road from [[Boys Club 21]], run by the Welsh paedophile [[Alan Williams]]. Both clubs offered adult male prostitutes legally. Spinks also trafficked boys as young as ten into the city's sex industry, first homeless boys from [[London]] and, after the collapse of the [[Soviet Union]], boys from [[East Germany]], [[Poland]], the Czech Republic and Slovakia, whom he used himself, sold to brothels and escort agencies, and filmed.[^1][^2] In his flat police later found lists headed "Klantenlyst" and "Jongenlyst," clients and boys.[^1]
|
||||
Warwick Spinks, a Londoner who had run a mail-order pornography business from [[Brighton]], managed the [[Gay Palace]] at 44 Spuistraat in [[Amsterdam]] in the late 1980s, across the road from [[Boys Club 21]], run by the Welsh paedophile [[Alan Williams]]. Both clubs offered adult male prostitutes legally.[^1] A Brighton mail-order company, Magic Moments (Mail Order) Limited, was incorporated on January 13, 1992. Spinks is not among its officers, whose recorded birth dates (January 1957, April 1968, September 1971) do not fit the ages reported for him (34 in July 1998, 48 in November 2012), and the company's first director gave a [[Hastings]] address, the town where Spinks's flat was raided in 1993. The records establish no connection between the company and Spinks's business.[^2] Spinks also trafficked boys as young as ten into the city's sex industry, first homeless boys from [[London]] and, after the collapse of the [[Soviet Union]], boys from [[East Germany]], [[Poland]], the [[Czech Republic]] and [[Slovakia]], whom he used himself, sold to brothels and escort agencies, and filmed, according to [[Nick Davies]].[^1] The [[Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre]] (CEOP) gave his age as 48 when he was arrested in November 2012.[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Blue Boy Case
|
||||
### Amsterdam clubs
|
||||
|
||||
On the night of August 2, 1993, a fourteen-year-old boy from the north east of England, called "Gary" in the press, climbed out of a toilet window of the [[Blue Boy]] club on Spuistraat and found a policeman; the British Embassy repatriated him the next day and alerted [[Scotland Yard]]. He said that Spinks had earlier taken him and a friend to his flat in [[Hastings]], given them [[LSD]] and, at knifepoint, photographed and raped them, and that at the end of July Spinks had drugged him again, taken him by Jetfoil from Dover to Ostend on a false identity card in the name of Michael Samuels, and sold him to the Blue Boy. The Paedophilia Unit found the photographs and the mugshot used for the false card in Spinks's flat in George Street, Hastings. Spinks was sentenced at Lewes Crown Court in 1995 to seven years for abduction and buggery, cut on appeal to five.[^1][^2] He absconded from a London probation hostel before completing the sentence, defrauded several credit card companies on a spending spree in the boy bars of Fuggerstrasse in [[Berlin]], and settled in [[Prague]].[^2]
|
||||
Davies wrote that both clubs ran a bar and offered the services of adult male prostitutes who could take customers upstairs to bedrooms.[^1] He also wrote that men over 18 could legally work in Amsterdam's sex industry, and that in the late 1980s Spinks managed the Gay Palace, "where he sold alcohol and young men to tourists".[^4] Davies's 1998 article, which carries the note "Previously unpublished" and is dated October 1, 1998, places Spinks at a club called the Boys for Men Club at 44b Spuistraat, across from the Boys Club 21, and says he worked there.[^5] The 2000 article places him running the Gay Palace at number 44.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Davies wrote that Spinks owned flats in Amsterdam, [[Prague]] and [[Tenerife]] which he rented to tourists, and that he decided to open his own brothels on boats outside the city.[^4] He pimped boys through his own escort agency. In his Hastings flat police found two lists headed "Klantenlyst" (clients) and "Jongenlyst" (boys). The lists recorded clients by name, telephone number and sexual preference, and boys by age.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
[[The Guardian]] reported in 1998 that Spinks, then 34 and described as a nephew of the Olympic boxer [[Terry Spinks]], was "unashamed of having employed male prostitutes on canal boats in Amsterdam". He told the paper: "All I was doing was running a legally licensed brothel which was controlled by the state and underwent regular checks." He said the youths were 18.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Blue Boy case
|
||||
|
||||
On the evening of August 2, 1993, a fourteen-year-old boy from the north east of England, called "Gary" in the press, climbed out of a toilet window of the [[Blue Boy]] club on Spuistraat and found a policeman. The Dutch police called the [[British Embassy]] in Amsterdam the next morning. The Embassy repatriated the boy and alerted [[Scotland Yard]].[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
He said that Spinks had earlier taken him and a friend to his flat in Hastings, given them [[LSD]] and, at knifepoint, photographed and sexually assaulted them, and that at the end of July Spinks had given him LSD again, taken him by [[Jetfoil]] from [[Dover]] to [[Ostend]] on a false identity card in the name of Michael Samuels, and sold him to the Blue Boy.[^4] The [[Paedophilia Unit]] found the photographs and the mugshot used for the false card in Spinks's flat in Hastings.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
Spinks was tried at [[Lewes Crown Court]] in 1995, on charges of abduction and buggery.[^4] Davies gave the month as March in the 1997 article and February in the 2000 article.[^1][^4] CEOP described the convictions as numerous child sexual offences against boys, gave the sentence as seven years, and said it was reduced to five years on appeal in 1996.[^3] The [[BBC]] reported the same sentence and appeal year, and located the offences in Hastings.[^7] The Guardian reported in 1998 that he had served 40 months of the five-year term.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Release, absconding and Prague
|
||||
|
||||
CEOP and the BBC both reported that Spinks was released on licence on condition that he did not leave the [[United Kingdom]] without permission. He breached the condition in 1997, was recalled to prison, and went missing.[^3][^7] The Guardian reported in July 1998 that he had been on the run since refusing to sign the sex offenders' register after his release from prison in [[Kent]] a year earlier, and that the [[Home Office]] confirmed he had breached the terms of his parole.[^6] Davies wrote that he absconded from a London probation hostel before the end of the five-year sentence, defrauded several credit card companies on a spending spree in the boy bars of [[Fuggerstrasse]] in [[Berlin]], and then settled in Prague.[^1] A Czech newspaper report from November 2012 said he had been released after serving more than half of the five-year term, and that British police suspected only that he had settled somewhere in Europe.[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
The Guardian found him in Prague in July 1998 running an accommodation agency for foreign visitors called [[Prague Connections]]. Spinks said he rented rooms to "heterosexual yuppies, occasional gay couples and even policemen", that contacts in the Czech Republic had let him start a new life there with a flat and a business, and that he had also been in [[Moscow]], Berlin, [[Casablanca]] and [[Johannesburg]]. "Never again will I return to Britain," he said. The [[Czech Police]] told the paper they were not aware of his presence in the country.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
The same article reported that his name had been found among details of child pornography customers in a police raid on the Amsterdam flat of [[Gerrit-Jan Ulrich]] (given in the article as "Gary Ulrich"), described as a member of the ring who had been murdered a few weeks earlier, and among the possessions of the Belgian [[Robbie Van Der Plancken]]. Spinks denied involvement. He said: "I think I've known two Robbies", one of whom "owned a business in central Amsterdam" and the other "was a Belgian guy I used to meet with in Amsterdam". He described the reported snuff movies as "a figment of police imagination" and said he had not been in Amsterdam for six years.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
### Operation Framework
|
||||
|
||||
In 1990 informants told the Obscene Publications Squad that videos of boys aged eleven to fourteen being raped by masked men were being shown at the Gay Palace; one said he had seen Spinks selling a video of an eight- or nine-year-old boy being tortured for 4,000 pounds. A drug dealer called "Frank" told Scotland Yard in 1993 that Spinks had shown him, in a bar in the Canary Islands, a video in which a boy of about twelve was attacked with needles, castrated and cut open in what looked like a Dutch barn. Scotland Yard and the Dutch police then set up [[Operation Framework]], in which an undercover officer befriended Spinks in England.[^2] Told that friends had been offered a snuff film for 6,000 pounds, Spinks said: "They're not six grand. I know, well I knew some people who were involved in making snuff movies and how they did it was, they only sold them in limited editions, made ten copies or something, ten very rich customers in America, who paid $5,000 each or something like that." He went on: "I know the person who made the film. I felt sorry for this boy, it was a German boy." Asked how old, he replied: "About 13, 15. He thought he was going to make 200 guilders and ended up being dead."[^1] He produced no film, and the operation ended with his arrest on the Blue Boy charges.[^2]
|
||||
In October 1990 detectives on the old [[Obscene Publications Squad]] at Scotland Yard received reports from informants about Alan Williams trafficking boys into Amsterdam. One informant who had visited the Gay Palace said he had watched videos of boys aged eleven to fourteen being abused by masked men there.[^1] Another informant, close to Williams, said he had seen Spinks selling a special video for £4,000, showing a boy he thought was eight or nine being abused and tortured by two men.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
A Birmingham man called "Edward" told Dutch and British police that he had seen five videos made by Spinks and Frank's circle in which boys were abused and killed, one on a boat, and took them to a house in [[Hoofddorp]] and to a lake where he said bodies had been dumped; Dutch police confirmed that Spinks had lived at one of the houses he identified, and said they found no evidence to support the claims.[^1][^2] A later informant for the Avon and Somerset police described a similar video shot in a flat.[^2]
|
||||
In 1993 a convicted drug dealer called "Frank" told Scotland Yard that Spinks had shown him, in a bar in the [[Canary Islands]], a video in which a boy of about twelve was attacked with needles, castrated and cut open in what looked like a Dutch barn.[^1][^4] After negotiations with the Dutch police, Scotland Yard set up [[Operation Framework]] and recruited an undercover officer to pose as a child abuser and befriend Spinks in England.[^1] Davies wrote in 1997 that the tapes of Spinks had been secretly recorded by an undercover police officer in Holland.[^4] Told that friends had been offered a snuff film for 6,000 pounds, Spinks said: "They're not six grand," and continued: "I know, well I knew some people who were involved in making snuff movies and how they did it was, they only sold them in limited editions, made ten copies or something, ten very rich customers in America, who paid $5,000 each or something like that". He added: "which is a lot of money to watch some kids being snuffed." He went on: "I know the person who made the film. I felt sorry for this boy, it was a German boy." Asked how old, he replied: "About 13, 15. He thought he was going to make 200 guilders and ended up being dead."[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Manuel Schadwald and the Elm Guest House
|
||||
Davies reported that the operation ended in frustration. Spinks produced no copy of the video, and the detectives could not justify keeping the undercover officer or sending officers to Amsterdam, where they had no police powers. They arrested Spinks in Hastings on the Blue Boy charges.[^1] Davies quoted Spinks telling the officer: "I know I'm a fat old queen, but I get away with it. I get away with murder."[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Robbie Van Der Plancken]], who had worked in the Rotterdam brothels of [[Lothar Glandorf]], claimed in an unbroadcast part of a Dutch television interview that the missing Berlin boy [[Manuel Schadwald]] had been sold to Spinks in Amsterdam; a bar owner told the journalist [[Nick Davies]] he thought he had once seen the boy with Spinks, then said he could easily have been mistaken. A joint Dutch and Berlin police inquiry found no sign of the boy, and Frank said Spinks had hinted that a German boy named Manny had been murdered.[^2][^3]
|
||||
A [[Birmingham]] man called "Edward", a customer of the Gay Palace, told the [[Network First]] documentary that he had seen five videos made by Spinks, Frank and Frank's partner, in which boys were abused and killed, one of them on a boat. He identified a house in [[Hoofddorp]] where, he said, some of the videos were made, and a second house where he said Spinks lived with Frank and Frank's partner. He also took police to a lake where, he said, Frank's partner had told him the bodies were dumped.[^4] Davies wrote that British and Dutch police, after examining the programme's information, decided to launch a murder inquiry, that police in London and Amsterdam confirmed Edward was a known associate of Spinks and Frank, and that Dutch police confirmed Spinks had lived at one of the houses Edward identified.[^4] Davies later reported that the Dutch police said they found no evidence to support the claims.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
On December 6, 2014, *The Sun* reported, from confidential sources, that the [[Metropolitan Police]] had been told by two informants that a boy had died while being abused in the Blue Boy with a Member of Parliament present, that Spinks had arranged the MP's trip, and that police were re-examining his files amid claims that he had visited the [[Elm Guest House]]. Spinks complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation that he had never run the Blue Boy, never given an MP tours of Amsterdam, was not a suspect and had never visited the guest house. The complaint was not upheld; the newspaper offered to add his denial.[^4]
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The [[Bristol]] detectives produced a further informant who said that in 1989 he had found, in a flat belonging to one of the key figures on the Amsterdam scene, a video showing a murder similar to the one described by Frank. [[Avon and Somerset Police]] had neither the funds nor the legal power to run their own inquiry in Holland.[^1]
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### Manuel Schadwald and Robbie Van Der Plancken
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[[Manuel Schadwald]], aged twelve, disappeared on July 24, 1993 in Berlin.[^5] Van Der Plancken, who had worked in the Rotterdam brothels of [[Lothar Glandorf]], claimed in an unbroadcast section of a Dutch television interview that Manuel had been sold to Spinks in Amsterdam, and Davies reported the claim.[^5]
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A bar owner told Davies he thought he had once seen the boy with Spinks, and then said he could easily have been mistaken.[^5] Frank said that Spinks had hinted that a German boy named Manny had been murdered, and Frank told police of Spinks's monthly trips to Berlin, often with boys from Amsterdam.[^1] The Dutch and German police later set about finding the boy, and failed. Davies wrote that Manuel Schadwald has never been found.[^1]
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On May 2, 1998 the [[Algemeen Dagblad]] reported that the boy was thought to have reached a boys' brothel in [[Rotterdam]] through a German identified as Ludwig A. (44) and a Briton identified as Warwick S. The paper gave no surname for either man. The records found do not establish whether Warwick S. is Spinks.[^9]
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### Prague and the name Willem
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British newspapers reported that Spinks was running sex tourism packages for gay men in Prague under the alias "Willem", posing as a Dutch national.[^10] [[James Kirchick]] wrote in May 2013 that "Toucan Apartments", the rental service Spinks ran prior to his arrest, had registered a [[Facebook]] page on April 12 of that year, and that a friend in Prague had told him Willem had been in Prague since March.[^10] A Czech report from November 2012 said he had run an unofficial network of accommodation for homosexuals in flats and houses, and that he had appeared under the names Willem Van Wijk and William Spinks.[^8] CEOP listed the same aliases.[^3] [[Companies House]] lists a Toucan Serviced Apartments Limited, registered in [[Maidstone]], incorporated on November 18, 2019 and dissolved on December 23, 2025. Its two directors were born in 1977 and Spinks is not among its officers. It was formed seven years after his arrest and is a different entity from the Prague rental service he ran in 2012.[^11]
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### The 2012 arrest, extradition and release
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CEOP said that Spinks was arrested by Czech police in August 2012, following intelligence linking him to the country and cooperation with Czech police specialist units tasked with finding wanted criminals, and that the arrest followed an international investigation involving CEOP, the [[Metropolitan Police]] and the [[Serious Organised Crime Agency]].[^3] The Czech police spokesman [[Tomáš Hulan]] told the press that officers had detained the wanted man on August 22 in a flat in Prague, after working through several possible addresses, and that Spinks resisted and was handcuffed after a short scuffle.[^8] According to [[Deník]], officers of the Czech police targeted-search department, nicknamed "lovci lebek" (skull hunters), had located his residence in central Prague at the end of August.[^12] The headline of [[Novinky.cz]] uses the same nickname.[^8]
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CEOP said Spinks was arrested at [[Heathrow Airport]] on his arrival from Prague, in a release dated November 16, 2012 that put the arrival on the previous day.[^3] The BBC placed the flight on Thursday, which was November 15.[^7] The Deník report said British officers collected him from Václav Havel Airport Prague under a European arrest warrant issued by British justice for breach of licence conditions.[^12] CEOP and the BBC both reported that, following extradition, he would serve the 18 remaining months of his sentence.[^3][^7]
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Kirchick, who was unable to get the release date from officials, wrote that Spinks "could have been released after having served less than half of his remaining sentence".[^10] The [[Ministry of Justice]] told him: "We do not comment on individuals. Any convicted sex offender who breaches their licence conditions faces spending the duration of their sentence in prison."[^10]
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### The 2014 Sun report and IPSO complaint
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On December 6, 2014, [[The Sun]] published an article headlined "MP 'was at snuff film lad's murder'".[^13] As summarised by IPSO, the article said informants had told police that an unnamed Member of Parliament was present at a "vice club" when a boy sold for sex died after being tortured, and that the MP had gone to Amsterdam for sex with boys "supplied by paedo fixer Warwick Spinks". The article quoted a source saying "Spinks knew the MP and arranged a tour to Amsterdam. While there he went to the Blue Boy bar, where Spinks was running a brothel." It also said police were re-examining files on Spinks amid claims that he was a regular visitor to [[Elm Guest House]]. A later passage of the IPSO summary gives the boy's death as suffocation.[^13]
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Spinks complained to the [[Independent Press Standards Organisation]]. He said he had not run a brothel in Amsterdam called Blue Boy, although he had run other brothels, that he had never given an MP a tour of Amsterdam, that he was not a suspect, and that he had never visited the guest house, which had closed while he was still at school. He also said he had been wrongly convicted and "framed for political and homophobic reasons".[^13]
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The Sun said that the police had refused to confirm or deny the allegations at the time. It said the 1995 trial judge had accepted the evidence of the boy who said he had been sold, and had said he "had no doubt that the boy spoke the truth". The paper offered to amend the online article to include Spinks's denial, and IPSO welcomed the offer.[^13] The committee did not uphold the complaint. Its ruling of April 28, 2015 found that the paper had been entitled to report the conviction, and recorded that Spinks "maintains that he was wrongly convicted".[^13]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Davies, Nick. "A paedophile ring in Amsterdam." *The Guardian,* April 5, 1997, mirrored at nickdavies.net.
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[^2]: Davies, Nick. "Paedophilia is easy 2: how a paedophile murder inquiry fell apart." *The Guardian,* November 27, 2000, mirrored at nickdavies.net.
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[^3]: Davies, Nick. "Paedophile networks traffick young boys across Europe." *The Guardian,* October 1, 1998, mirrored at nickdavies.net.
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[^4]: Independent Press Standards Organisation. *Spinks v The Sun,* ruling 02292-14, April 28, 2015. https://www.ipso.co.uk/rulings/02292-14/
|
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[^1]: Nick Davies, "Paedophilia is easy 2: how a paedophile murder inquiry fell apart," *The Guardian*, November 27, 2000, https://www.nickdavies.net/2000/11/27/paedophilia-is-easy-2-how-a-paedophile-murder-inquiry-fell-apart/
|
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[^2]: Companies House, company 02676915, Magic Moments (Mail Order) Limited, Brighton, incorporated January 13, 1992 (SIC 47910), officers page, https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02676915/officers (six officers and five resignations listed; the 1992 first director and secretary resigned February 11, 2013; Spinks does not appear).
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[^3]: Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, "Child sexual offender who went on the run for 15 years is now back behind bars," press release, November 16, 2012, Wayback Machine capture of January 30, 2013 of the ceop.police.uk Media Centre, 2012 press releases, https://web.archive.org/web/20130130112106/http://ceop.police.uk/Media-Centre/Press-releases/2012/
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[^4]: Nick Davies, "A paedophile ring in Amsterdam," *The Guardian*, April 5, 1997, https://www.nickdavies.net/1997/04/05/a-paedophile-ring-in-amsterdam/.
|
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[^5]: Nick Davies, "Paedophile networks traffick young boys across Europe," dated October 1, 1998 and marked "Previously unpublished," https://www.nickdavies.net/1998/10/01/paedophile-network-trafficks-young-boys-across-europe/
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[^6]: Kate Connolly and Owen Bowcott, "Fugitive Briton linked to Dutch child porn hits at 'witch-hunt' from Prague refuge," *The Guardian*, July 31, 1998, page 15.
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[^7]: BBC News, "Warwick Spinks arrest: Child sex attacker back in prison," November 16, 2012, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-20355257 ("Warwick Spinks, 48, was arrested at Heathrow after being flown from Prague on Thursday"; image caption: "Warwick Spinks was convicted in 1995 of offences committed in Hastings").
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[^8]: Novinky.cz, "Uprchlého britského pedofila zatkli čeští lovci lebek, provozoval v ČR ubytovnu," November 16, 2012, https://www.novinky.cz/clanek/zahranicni-evropa-uprchleho-britskeho-pedofila-zatkli-cesti-lovci-lebek-provozoval-v-cr-ubytovnu-172991 Original: "Hledaného muže zadrželi dvaadvacátého srpna v bytě [...] v Praze" [The wanted man was detained on the twenty-second of August in a flat [...] in Prague]; "provozoval neoficiální síť ubytování pro homosexuály v podobě bytů a domů" [he ran an unofficial network of accommodation for homosexuals in the form of flats and houses]; "Vystupoval například jako Willem Van Wijk a William Spinks" [He appeared, for example, as Willem Van Wijk and William Spinks]; "Nicméně jeho agresivita mu nebyla nic platná a po krátké šarvátce skončil s pouty na rukou" [However his aggression was of no use to him and after a short scuffle he ended up in handcuffs]. The headline's "lovci lebek" is the nickname of the Czech police targeted-search detectives, as Deník explains.
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[^9]: Algemeen Dagblad, "Politie onderzoekt 'politieschandaal'," May 2, 1998, Delpher KBPERS01:003153002:mpeg21:a00051, https://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=KBPERS01:003153002:mpeg21:a00051 Original: "Vermoed wordt dat de scholier daar terecht is gekomen via de Duitser Ludwig A. (44) en de Brit Warwick S." [It is suspected that the schoolboy ended up there via the German Ludwig A. (44) and the Briton Warwick S.], following "Diverse getuigen hebben hem kort daarna gezien in het jongensbordeel van Lothar G. en Henk S." [Several witnesses saw him shortly afterwards in the boys' brothel of Lothar G. and Henk S.].
|
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[^10]: James Kirchick, "The British paedophile who's still on the run," *The Spectator*, May 24, 2013, https://spectator.com/article/the-british-paedophile-who-s-still-on-the-run/
|
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[^11]: Companies House, company 12319297, Toucan Serviced Apartments Ltd, Maidstone, incorporated November 18, 2019, dissolved December 23, 2025, officers page, https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/12319297/officers
|
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[^12]: Milan Holakovský, "Chlípný Brit sloužil v Praze homosexuálům. Domů se vrátil v poutech," *Deník (Praha)*, November 18, 2012, https://prazsky.denik.cz/krimi/chlipny-brit-slouzil-v-praze-homosexualum-domu-se-vratil-v-poutech/ Original: "detektivové, jimž se přezdívá lovci lebek - kriminalisté z oddělení cíleného pátrání" [detectives nicknamed skull hunters, officers of the targeted search department]; "Ti prý jeho bydliště v širším centru Prahy vypátrali již na konci srpna" [They reportedly traced his residence in the wider centre of Prague as early as the end of August]; "Česká strana tak naplnila evropský zatýkací rozkaz, vydaný britskou justicí pro porušení podmínek podmínečného propuštění z věznice" [The Czech side thereby executed a European arrest warrant issued by British justice for breach of the conditions of release on licence from prison]; "Po odsezení více než poloviny pětiletého trestu byl propuštěn na podmínku" [After serving more than half of the five-year sentence he was released on licence]; "britská policie pouze tušila, že se usadil někde v Evropě" [British police only suspected that he had settled somewhere in Europe].
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[^13]: Independent Press Standards Organisation, ruling 02292-14, *Spinks v The Sun*, published April 28, 2015, https://www.ipso.co.uk/rulings/02292-14/
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