Henk Heithuis (1935 – 28 October 1958) was a Dutch student of a Catholic

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

and victim of sexual abuse.

Life

Henk Heithuis was born a child of divorce and was from the first year of his life educated at orphanages and boarding schools in the southern Netherlands. The boarding school "Saint Vincent" in was run by monks. There, he learned handicrafts in the years 1950-1953.

Sexual abuse

On 30 January 1956, Heithuis filed a criminal complaint against the friars of the boarding school at Harreveld. He accused them of having abused him sexually in the years 1951–1953, when he was a student. Also, in 1955 after he had already finished his school days he went back to the boarding school during the weekends because his family didn't want to take care of him. Also during these weekends sexual acts between the monks and Henk took place.

Castration

Boekel Huize Padua Rijksmonument 518252 gevelbeeld

The criminal complaint resulted in Heithuis being accused of having seduced the monks. Thereupon he was committed to a Roman Catholic psychiatric hospital,

Huize Padua Huize Padua is a hamlet in the Dutch province of North Brabant, in the municipality of Boekel Boekel () is a municipality and a town in the southern Netherlands. Etymology Previously it was assumed the name Boekel referred to the forest ...

in Boekel. As part of his treatment he was castrated. The surgery took place at St. Joseph Hospital in

Veghel Veghel () is a town and a former municipality in the southern Netherlands. On 1 January 2017 Veghel, together with Schijndel and Sint-Oedenrode, merged into a new municipality called Meierijstad creating the largest municipality of the provinc ...

. Heithuis was 20 years old and then a minor under applicable Dutch law.

Life after castration and death

Heithuis worked as a sailor. He suffered severely from the psychological and hormonal effects of castration. In 1957 he reported to the Dutch consulate in

Kobe Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whic ...

, Japan, where he had left the vessel. With the help of IJsbrand Rogge, who was then working at a Dutch bank branch in Japan, Henk returned to the Netherlands. He planned a legal campaign against the people who were responsible for the crime committed against him. Heithuis told IJsbrand Rogge and his brother Cornelius, then 24 and 27 years old, about his life as a foster child in Catholic orphanages, boarding schools and mental health institutions. The Rogge brothers saw his genital mutilation; according to them "all was gone". In 1957 Heithuis charged the friars again, this time because of the castration. Heithuis died 28 October 1958 in a car accident. The police confiscated and destroyed all his personal possessions and his court documents on the day of his death. Heithuis often expressed his fear that "they will get hold of me again."

References

External link

BBC
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heithuis, Henk 1935 births 1958 deaths Dutch victims of crime Child sexual abuse in the Netherlands Incidents of violence against boys Castrated people Violence against men in Europe Catholic Church sexual abuse scandals