A 79-year-old man was handed a 15-month suspended prison sentence by a Bruges court on Monday for voyeurism and possession of child pornography images, Belga News Agency has reported.
The man, known only as 'Joost D', was arrested on 5 August, 2021 while taking photographs of naked children playing on the beach in Bredene, West Flanders. Shortly before being arrested, he had unsuccessfully attempted to destroy his camera's memory card, which investigators later found contained photographs of other young boys playing on the beach taken earlier that year.
During the trial, the septuagenarian — who was arrested on similar charges in 1998 but conditionally released a year later — contested the charge of voyeurism, claiming that the beach is a public place. He also suggested that he was simply incapable of resisting his sexual attraction to young boys.
"This isn't bad, is it?" he said. "I like to take pictures of children. I like to see them. That is my orientation."
The man did admit, however, to taking pictures of children and placing them in a collection book. Nevertheless, his defence lawyer argued that these images were not sexually suggestive and, indeed, had artistic merit.
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"The children are not in suggestive positions," said defence lawyer Rik Demeyer. "This book is an artistic work."
Demeyer acknowledged, however, that his client's "old demons had resurfaced" during the Covid-19 pandemic as "boredom set in", and that he had suffered from "loneliness during the lockdowns".
Prosecutor Fien Maddens said the defendant's "relapse" was "disturbing", and also claimed that he had "minimised the facts" during the trial.
Joost D is expected to undergo psychiatric treatment to deal with his sexual impulses, but will not be required to take any libido-inhibiting medication.
