Groningen man could spend 3 years in prison over sextortion allegations
Dutch prosecutors have demanded a three-year prison sentence for a 28-year-old man from Groningen accused of committing sextortion against at least 18 victims. The suspect allegedly used a dating app to lure victims before blackmailing them through social media and messaging platforms.
Three years is absurd. Those kids will suffer for more than three years, all 18 of them. He should get a year for each child whose life he screwed up.
The case was presented Friday in the court of Zutphen, where prosecutors detailed the suspect’s calculated approach. According to the Public Prosecution Service (OM), the man repeatedly followed the same method: he initiated contact with victims via a dating app and then moved the conversation to WhatsApp. Once communication was established, he falsely claimed to be a minor, searched for his victims’ personal information on social media, and used that information to threaten them.
The suspect demanded money or prepaid credit vouchers, warning that he would expose his victims if they refused to comply. “That has actually happened, as he posted messages on Facebook to publicly shame his victims,” the prosecution stated.
The impact of these threats was severe, prosecutors said, pointing to the psychological toll on victims. “We often see in these types of cases that victims are driven to the extreme and may even decide to take their own lives. Committing such acts is calculated and ruthless. This is something that must be strongly condemned,” the prosecution argued in court.
Authorities traced the suspect’s activities through digital evidence seized during a search in July 2024. Police confiscated two mobile phones and a laptop, which contained thousands of files related to the dating app. The data confirmed the Groningen suspect’s involvement in sextortion, prosecutors said, and suggested the actual number of victims could be higher than the 18 who formally filed complaints.
The lead prosecutor emphasized the growing threat of online crimes like sextortion, which have seen a sharp increase in the Netherlands. “Behind every case of sextortion, there is a victim who suffers a deeply disruptive impact. This case is no different,” the prosecution stated.
'Little Emile': Grandparents detained over 2023 disappearance of French toddler
The mysterious case of a missing toddler from a rural village in the French Alps in July 2023 riveted France’s attention on Emile Soleil – or Little Emile, as he came to be known. The case took a surprising turn on Tuesday with his grandparents and two of their adult children detained by police.
French police detained Philippe and Anne Vedovini, along with two of their adult children – Emile’s uncles or aunts, who were not named – for questioning on suspicion of intentional homicide and concealing a corpse.
The grandparents' lawyer, Isabelle Colombani, confirmed that they had been placed in police custody but had no further comment.
According to a press release from the Aix-en-Provence prosecutor, the arrests will allow investigators to verify, analyse and cross-examine evidence that had been gathered in the last few months.
The authorities also said that the forensic operations will be conducted at “various locations across the country” and that they will reveal more once the investigation is over.
This is the first time an arrest has been made in the case. Emile disappeared in the summer of 2023 from Le Haut-Vernet, a tiny alpine hamlet with just 25 permanent residents nestled in the alps just south of Grenoble. The hamlet is part of the larger village of Le Vernet, which was inked to another disaster – it was cordoned off in March 2015 after a Germanwings Airbus crash that led to the deaths of 150 people.
Emile, then 2 years old, was spending the summer with his maternal grandparents at their second home along with young aunts and uncles between 10 and 20 years of age. His parents, Marie Vedovini and Colomban Soleil, weren’t there at the time.
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Britain fines OnlyFans parent company $1.36 million over age verification failure
March 27 (UPI) -- British communications regulator Ofcom Thursday fined OnlyFans provider Fenix International Limited $1.36 million for failing to provide accurate information about age control measures for the adults-only sexually explicit platform.
Ofcom sought information from Fenix in June 2022 and June 2023 on age assurance measures, including the effectiveness of facial estimation tech used to verify those using OnlyFans were of adult age.
"When we use our statutory powers to request information from platforms, they are required, by law, to ensure it is complete, accurate and delivered to us on time," Ofcom Enforcement Director Suzanne Cater said in a statement. "Receiving accurate and complete information is fundamental for Ofcom to do its job as a regulator and to understand and monitor how platforms are operating. We will hold platforms to high standards and will not hesitate to take enforcement action where we find failings."
OnlyFans said in a statement that it "recognizes the importance of providing Ofcom with accurate and timely information."
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"We welcome the conclusion of this process and Ofcom's previous decision to close their investigation into our age assurance measures," it said.
The technology requires a user to submit a live selfie that is used to estimate the age of the user. Fenix told Ofcom that a "challenge age" for its facial age estimation technology was set at 23.
If the software estimates the user's age at over the challenge age the user is allowed onto the platform. If not, a secondary age verification method is required.
According to Ofcom, Fenix learned in January 2024 that the challenge age was mistakenly set at 20. Ofcom subsequently found out that the age had been set at 20 since Nov. 1, 2021.
The regulator wasn't notified of that error until Jan. 22, 2024.
"Taking all the evidence into account, our investigation concluded that Fenix contravened its duties to provide accurate and complete information to Ofcom in response to two statutory information requests," Ofcom said in a statement.
"Our investigation raised a number of concerns, including that it took the company over 16 months to discover that it had provided Ofcom with inaccurate information."
The fine was imposed under Britain's Online Safety Act, which took effect March 17.
The new law targets online child sexual abuse material and provides fines up to $20 million or equal to 10% of the proceeds of offending companies.
And, it should double with each offence.
The law also allows the government to sue to block any online platform violating the law from Britain.
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