Five teenagers should be sentenced to jail and community service for their role in the death of a 73-year-old man during a vigilante hunt for suspected paedophiles, the public prosecution department has told a court in Arnhem.

The five youngsters, who ranged in age from 15 to 18 at the time, are said to have made an appointment with the man via a chat website and to have then beaten him up. He died later in hospital.

The case has largely been heard behind closed doors because of the age of the defendants.

The public prosecution department said that the use of organized violence is ‘unacceptable’. It is important to show that phenomena such as ‘paedo hunting’ endangers lives and is subject to serious penalties, the prosecutor said in a statement.