A teacher has been arrested on suspicion of molesting dozens of very young children in what is feared to be one of the worst cases of sexual abuse in the Netherlands, officials said late Sunday.
The 27-year-old suspect worked as a substitute teacher for at least two preschools in Amsterdam and offered baby-sitting services online, Mayor Eberhard van der Laan said at a news conference late on Sunday.
Mr. van der Laan said more than 50 parents had been informed that the suspect, arrested last week after a tip from American authorities, had either confessed to abusing their children or was thought to have done so.
The European law enforcement cooperation agency Eurojust said Monday that an international investigation had uncovered a worldwide pedophile network, but an agency spokesman declined to comment on whether the Amsterdam case was linked to that investigation.
The Amsterdam suspect was arrested last Tuesday after a Dutch television program aired what it said was an image of an unidentified victim of child pornography. United States authorities told their Dutch counterparts that the image was made in the Netherlands, said the chief prosecutor, Herman Bolhaar.
