A 63-year-old former tennis coach and primary school teacher from Pijnacker in Zuid-Holland has been sentenced to seven years in jail for the systematic sexual abuse of five underage girls.

In the case of one girl, the abuse started at the age of 11 and lasted five years before being reported to police. Fred M, a self-confessed pedophile, admitted to the abuse and that of four other girls. There was not enough proof in the case of a sixth girl.

M, who was also banned from teaching for the next twelve years, was found to be in possession of 55,000 photos and videos depicting child sexual abuse.

According to the judge, the man had “condemned the girls to a childhood of fear and loneliness”.

The judge also said it was reprehensible that M did not stop even after parents and the director of the school spoke to him about his behaviour. As a professional who was aware of his pedophilia, he should have realised what the impact on the lives of his victims and their parents would be, he said.

Lawyer for the girls Sébas Diekstra said that most of them girls were happy with the verdict. “There is no punishment that can compensate for the hurt and damage that has been done but this verdict does justice to some extent to the seriousness of what happened to them,” he told local broadcaster Omroep West.