The inclusion of more high-profile figures in the story meant that Bodegraven’s conspiracy echoed more of the QAnon model, van der Linden adds. Not only did this contribute to the anti-lockdown sentiments circulating at the time, but the idea of mass child abuse was also shocking enough to attract the attention of even ordinary people, prompting the plot to go viral , he adds.
In response, dozens of people arrived in Bodegraven in the spring of 2021 to express sympathy for the children they believed, without evidence, to have been murdered, laying flowers along the long path leading from the road to the local cemetery. “I lay these flowers in honor of Joost Knevel (hero of heroes!) and other victims of satanic abuse,” read a message left at the children’s graves, which have since been removed. They signed their message with the hashtag #StopVanDissel.
“I was really angry,” says Ida Bromberg, describing how she felt after these visitors left a teddy bear on the grave of her father, buried in Bodegraven. “The idea that some of these crazy people went to his grave and did all these things, that really got to me.”
The Bodegraven conspiracy had repercussions across the country. After his home address was leaked by Kat’s website Red Pill Journal, van Dissel was forced to employ 24-hour security. In October 2021, a man was arrested on suspicion of plot to assassinate the Prime Minister after he posted a message on a Telegram group linked to Red Pill Journal, De Bataafse Republiek, which has since been deleted by Telegram.
In May, the municipality of Bodegraven resorted to legal action in an attempt to stem the wave of conspiracies engulfing the town. The mayor at the time, Christiaan van der Kamp, said he feared the attention to the city would escalate into violence. “A man was beaten to death in Arnhem last year during a so-called ‘paedo hunt’,” he told the Dutch newspaper. ANNOUNCEMENTadding that he didn’t want this to happen again in Bodegraven.
Kat was arrested in July 2021 in Northern Ireland, where he was living, and was eventually extradited to the Netherlands last year. Knevel, who was based in Spain, was also extradited in August 2021 to face charges of inciting violence and was sentenced in June 2022 to 15 months in prison. Raatgever, who posted a video of himself shouting “child molester” at van Dissel as he rode past on his bicycle, was also sentenced to 18 months in prison in June 2022. Bodegraven also filed a lawsuit against platforms used by men. Police forced the closure of two Telegram channels with a total of 13,000 members. And in September 2022, the municipality also took Twitter to court, trying – unsuccessfully – to force the platform to remove remaining traces of Bodegraven’s plot.
