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Johannes Cornelis Christiaan "Joop" Wilhelmus (7 January 1943[1] – c. 9 September 1994[2][3]) was a Dutch pornographer and entrepreneur, known for co-founding and publishing pornographic magazine Chick, founding and publishing child pornography magazine Lolita, and for pedophile advocacy.
Joop Wilhelmus | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 7, 1943 |
| Died | September 9, 1994 (aged 51) Dordrecht |
| Occupation(s) | Pornographer, entrepreneur |
| Years active | 1968–1987 |
| Known for | Chick, Lolita |
| Criminal charge | Child sexual abuse (incest) |
| Criminal penalty | Imprisonment for 4 years |
| Criminal status | Convicted in 1992, released in 1994 |
| Children | Four |
Wilhelmus received an upbringing based on radical left principles.[4] He was a teacher and started his career by publishing Provo-like journals. [5][6] Wilhelmus advocated complete sexual freedom, and became a well-known advocate of free sexual morality. [7][2][8] Together with Peter Johannes Muller (of Candy magazine), Wilhelmus broke the taboo of sexuality in the Netherlands.[7] Wilhelmus also aggressively attacked women's shelters for abused women, and published the confidential addresses of these shelters.[9] Wilhelmus started sex shops and a 'stimulus society' in a cellar in Utrecht that allowed couples to engage in partner swapping.[6][3] Wilhelmus was married and had four children; three daughters and one son. [3][10][11] Wilhelmus' wife shared his philosophy regarding adult and child sexuality.[12]
Chick, self-styled "sex magazine for the worker",[13] was an explicit sex journal that started in 1968.[6] Chick was founded by Wilhelmus, its editor-in-chief, and Jan Wenderhold, its sales manager.[4] It also published dating personals that were about sex and not about love.[5] Chick's initial print run of 5,000 rose to 18,000 by the second half of 1968,[6] and according to Wilhelmus, the magazine's circulation was 140,000 in 1971.[3] In the seventies, Wilhelmus argued in Chick that sex with children was part of the sexual liberation.[14] In 1970, the publication of Chick resulted in the Dutch "Chick-arrest" by the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, which in turn led to the new Dutch moral law of 1971 that no longer criminally sanctioned pornography.[15] After a conflict between founders Wilhelmus and Wenderhold, two versions of Chick co-existed, Chick/Dordrecht and Chick/Amsterdam,[4] until Wenderhold eventually bought the Dordrecht version.
Wilhelmus was also the founder and publisher of child pornography magazine Lolita.[16][17][18][19] Lolita was first published circa 1970. Besides pornography it also featured a contact service for its readers through classified ads.[20][16] Wilhelmus encouraged readers to provide new child pornography images so as to ensure his magazine's survival.[21][16] A gift magazine was given in exchange for each new child photograph,[20] and the sum of $350 was offered in the magazine if Wilhelmus could take the photographs himself.[16] While Wilhelmus was arrested for publishing Lolita in January 1971, he was released immediately after the interrogation,[17] and was never prosecuted for publishing the magazine.[17] In 1973, he gave a lecture at a Roman Catholic training institute for working girls in Rotterdam, at the invitation of the school board,[22] and Lex van Naerssen of Utrecht University invited Wilhelmus as a visiting scholar, which led to parliamentary questions in the Dutch House of Representatives.[23] In June 1975, Wilhelmus partook in a TV broadcast of the NCRV-program Hier en Nu, where he explained how normal sex with children was to him.[24] In 1986, the PSI subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs called Lolita "the most notorious of the foreign commercial child pornography publications".[20] The magazine reached issue 55 in 1984,[20][25] and was eventually closed down by Dutch authorities in 1987,[19][16] seventeen years after its conception.[25] According to Wilhelmus, at the peak of its popularity, Lolita's circulation was 25,000.[26] Lolita became an almost universal brand name for child pornography.[25][16] In an interview with the VPRO, Dik Brummel of the NVSH declared that he had bought some issues of Lolita and considered them to be "historical documents".[27]
Wilhelmus became a millionaire,[3][12] but as "one of the most successful"[21] and "one of the most notorious"[1] publishers of child pornography, he ran into great opposition when the social climate started changing and he became more and more isolated.[3] The Dutch authorities arrested him every time he tried to leave the country.[28] In 1992, Wilhelmus was sentenced to four years' imprisonment for having sex with his then twelve-year-old daughter.[24] Wilhelmus claimed to be innocent,[11] and his oldest daughter started a petition to free her father and asked a doctor to examine the daughter who was supposedly abused.[11] This doctor issued a medical certificate that stated the daughter could not have had sexual intercourse[10] and that her hymen was intact.[23] Two years later, Wilhelmus was released early because of good behavior.[3] The night after his release, Wilhelmus drowned in the water of the Voorstraathaven in downtown Dordrecht.[24][3] According to the police, his death was neither suicide nor murder, but Wilhelmus was drunk and his death an accident.[3]
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