Lawyer Tjalling van der Goot has asked the Amsterdam court to acquit his client Robert Mikelsons on all but one charge of the indictment.

Robert Mikelsons is accused of abusing 67 children at the day care centre where he worked as a child minder. However, his lawyer says there is only sufficient proof for the abuse of one child. He argues that the evidence supporting the charges of production, possession and distribution of child pornography was illegally obtained and therefore inadmissible.

Mr Van der Goot told the Amsterdam court that the police were wrong to search his client’s house shortly after his detention in December 2010 because they did not have sufficient probable cause. The lawyer said that the hard disks containing the child pornography made by Robert Mikelsons can therefore not be admitted into evidence.

If the court rules out the hard disks, that would leave only the confessions Robert Mikelsons made to the police. In his lawyer’s opinion, these statements by themselves would be inadequate proof without any supporting evidence.

(gsh)

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