NETHERLANDS
New York Daily News
Dutch boys and young men who accused priests of sexual abuse in the ‘50s were surgically castrated ‘to get rid of homosexuality,’ journalist finds
By David Boroff / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, March 21, 2012,
Dutch boys and young men who accused priests of sex abuse in the 1950s were surgically castrated “to get rid of homosexuality” while in the care of the church, an investigative journalist has found.
Joep Dohmen of the NRC Handelsblad, a daily newspaper in the Netherlands, discovered evidence of at least 10 castrations by the Dutch Roman Catholic Church.
“These cases are anonymous and can no longer be traced,” Dohman told The Telegraph newspaper of London. “There will be many more. But the question is whether those boys, now old men, will want to tell their story.”
Dohman did discover the identity of one of the victims, a young man named Henk Heithuis, who was castrated at the age of 20 in 1956 after accusing clergymen of abusing him.
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