Child porn convict Bellingcat committed suicide
Daniel Romein took his life after conviction child abuse and possession of child porn
Daniel Romein, who researched child pornography for Bellingcat, was convicted in 2022 of sexual abuse of his daughter, after having been convicted 15 years earlier for possession of child pornography. Just before Christmas 2022, he committed suicide. Romein was also investigating who were behind the downing of flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine. A few months before his death, he shared his findings with the Joint Investigation Team. It announced in 2023 that this information was of no use.
"Daniel Romein died on 19 December in his sleep from cardiac arrest. He was 52 years old," reported Dutch daily De Volkskrant on 16 February 2023 in an in memoriam. In the article, there was nothing but praise for the ex-Bellingcat employee. He had played "a key role" in discovering the location from which the fatal missile had been fired that brought down flight MH17 in 2014 in eastern Ukraine, journalist Robert van der Noordaa of weekly De Groene told the newspaper. "His contribution to tracking down the suspects who have since been convicted is off extraordinary significance." How Van der Noordaa, who described himself as "a good friend of Romein's", came to this is a mystery. Indeed, it was blogger Peter Scheele of ukraine@war who, four days after the disaster, led journalists to the location later identified by the Joint Investigation Team as the launch site of the fatal missile. Nor did Romein play any role in tracking down two Russians and one Ukrainian who were later convicted of requesting, transporting and monitoring the Buk air defence system that was allegedly used to shoot down MH17.
Romein thought he had identified the men who had formed the crew of the Buk and fired the fatal shot. He first posted their portrait photos on Twitter in 2022, and added to that that he had reported them to the Joint Investigation Team (JIT). He then posted their names, and subsequently deleted the tweet. In February 2023, two months after Romein's death, the JIT reported in its final report that it had failed to identify who the crew members of the Buk were. In particular, the JIT mentioned the information it had been sent by Romein. “On the basis of this information and the results of its own investigation, the JIT concluded that nothing could be found that pointed to involvement on the part of these four persons in the downing of MH17.”
Romein, who wrote under a pseudonym and whose real name is known to the author of this article, died on 19 December 2022 at the age of 52. He killed himself, says an acquaintance of his, who preferred not to be named. The motive seems to lie in the private sphere. The Hague District Court had sentenced him to 36 months' imprisonment on 24 March that year. This for abusing his daughter from the age of 6 to 10. The verdict also stated that Romein had been convicted 15 years earlier for possession of child pornography. According to Romein's mother, who does not want her name mentioned, her son was innocent. There would have been a "witch hunt". However, according to the court, the accusation of abuse was supported not only by statements from Romein's daughter, but also by a letter he had sent her expressing regret, and from his own statements. For instance, during his police interrogation, Romein acknowledged having had an intimate relationship with his daughter. He explained this from the "free upbringing" he had enjoyed. The verdict was published only recently, after the author of this article inquired at the press office of the court about it.
Salient detail: Romein not only covered MH17 for Bellingcat, but also participated in a project by the name of Stop Child Abuse research. This is a project of Interpol. On its website, the international police organisation displays objects, such as curtains, furniture and garments, that can be seen in the background of photos or videos of child abuse, in the hope that someone will recognise them and alert the police. Bellingcat collaborated on this project. Articles about it on their website show that Romein was an active contributor to it from 2018 to 2020. Two articles list him as the lead author.
Did Bellingcat know about his fondness for child pornography? Is that why he was fired? Carlos Gonzales, who collaborated with Romein on a number of articles on Stop Child Abuse, did not respond to contact requests. Bellingcat's staff could not be reached for comment either. Journalist Van der Noordaa, who considered Romein "a good friend", said, when asked, he did not know anything about Romein’s conviction. A scandal arose around Van der Noordaa earlier when it emerged that he combined his journalistic work with work for NATO and the Ukrainian authorities. "It is quite clear that cooperation with a foreign power or NATO can damage your credibility as an independent journalist," secretary general Thomas Bruning of Dutch Association of Journalists NVJ reacted. Van der Noordaa accused MH17 researcher Max van der Werf of “having spread disinformation” about MH17 “on behalf of the Russian military intelligence service GRU”. He substantiated this claim by refering to an article on the Bellingcat website. There is no mention in this article of Van der Werff being in contact with members of the GRU. Chief editor Xandra Schutte of weekly De Groene, who published the article of Van der Noordaa, refuses to rectify. De Groene is sponsored by Dutch billionaire Rob Defares.
In 2019, Romein, along with Bellingcat colleagues Christo Grozev and Roman Dobrokhotov, won the Investigative Reporting Award of the European Press Prize for an article they had written on the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. In 2020, a Bellingcat article on child pornography by Romein and his colleagues Carlos Gonzales and Timmi Allen was nominated for the European Press Prize's Innovation Award. In the following year, Romein was stripped of all its glory. The European Press Prize posted a statement on its website saying that the organisation had received "several substantiated complaints" about Romein from "different people". Which complaints these were and by whom they had been made, the European Press Prize did not comment on that, but it did say that it had decided to remove Romein from their register, and to revoke his laureate status
This is not the first time that Bellingcat has been discredited. German medium Junge Welt revealed that Bellingcat contributor Timmi Allen's real name was Olaf Neitsch. There was a reason he had adopted a pseudonym. In a previous life, he worked for the Stasi, the feared secret service of the DDR, former East Germany.
Media personality and director of the Amsterdam debate centre De Balie Yoeri Albrecht left Bellingcat's Supervisory Board on 1 July 2023 after a video went viral showing him attacking a journalist from the YouTube channel Left Laser and ripping the microphone out of his hand. He did this after the journalist asked him why Albrecht had a busted Russian tank set up in front of the Balie's door. Did this have anything to do with the fact that NATO was a "project benefactor" of De Balie, as stated on the debate centre's website? His attack on the journalist earned Albrecht a swipe from the Dutch Association of Journalists. “You keep your hands off of journalists," tweeted secretary general Thomas Bruning.
Bulgarian Christo Grozev made it to head of research at Bellingcat and appeared in numerous interviews on Dutch TV and elsewhere. In 2023, he suddenly left. This happened after he was discredited for involvement in a failed Ukrainian attempt to get Russian fighter pilots to defect to the enemy, plane and all. Grozev again became discredited when, in an interview with Sky News, he condoned the 2 April 2023 bombing of a St Petersburg cafe in which a war reporter was killed and 30 others injured. The Grayzone reported that this came to the attention of Leslie Aun of the US state agency National Endowment for Democracy, which has funded Bellingcat for years.
"Daniel Romein died on 19 December in his sleep from cardiac arrest. He was 52 years old," reported Dutch daily De Volkskrant on 16 February 2023 in an in memoriam. In the article, there was nothing but praise for the ex-Bellingcat employee. He had played "a key role" in discovering the location from which the fatal missile had been fired that brought down flight MH17 in 2014 in eastern Ukraine, journalist Robert van der Noordaa of weekly De Groene told the newspaper. "His contribution to tracking down the suspects who have since been convicted is off extraordinary significance." How Van der Noordaa, who described himself as "a good friend of Romein's", came to this is a mystery. Indeed, it was blogger Peter Scheele of ukraine@war who, four days after the disaster, led journalists to the location later identified by the Joint Investigation Team as the launch site of the fatal missile. Nor did Romein play any role in tracking down two Russians and one Ukrainian who were later convicted of requesting, transporting and monitoring the Buk air defence system that was allegedly used to shoot down MH17.
Romein thought he knew for sure who the men who had formed the crew of the Buk and fired the fatal shot were. He first posted their portrait photos on Twitter in 2022, and added to that that he had reported them to the Joint Investigation Team (JIT). He then posted their names, and subsequently deleted the tweet. In February 2023, two months after Romein's death, the JIT reported in its final report that it had failed to identify who the crew members of the Buk were. In particular, the JIT mentioned the information it had been sent by Romein. “On the basis of this information and the results of its own investigation, the JIT concluded that nothing could be found that pointed to involvement on the part of these four persons in the downing of MH17.”
Romein, who wrote under a pseudonym and whose real name is known to the author of this article, died on 19 December 2022 at the age of 52. He killed himself, says an acquaintance of his, who preferred not to be named. The motive seems to lie in the private sphere. The Hague District Court had sentenced him to 36 months' imprisonment on 24 March that year. This for abusing his daughter from the age of 6 to 10. The verdict also stated that Romein had been convicted 15 years earlier for possession of child pornography. According to Romein's mother, who does not want her name mentioned, her son was innocent. There would have been a "witch hunt". However, according to the court, the accusation of abuse was supported not only by statements from Romein's daughter, but also by a letter he had sent her expressing regret, and from his own statements. For instance, during his police interrogation, Romein acknowledged having had an intimate relationship with his daughter. He explained this from the "free upbringing" he had enjoyed. The verdict was published only recently, after the author of this article inquired at the press office of the court about it.
Salient detail: Romein not only covered MH17 for Bellingcat, but also participated in a project by the name of Stop Child Abuse research. This is a project of Interpol. On its website, the international police organisation displays objects, such as curtains, furniture and garments, that can be seen in the background of photos or videos of child abuse, in the hope that someone will recognise them and alert the police. Bellingcat collaborated on this project. Articles about it on their website show that Romein was an active contributor to it from 2018 to 2020. Two articles list him as the lead author.
Did Bellingcat know about his fondness for child pornography? Is that why he was fired? Carlos Gonzales, who collaborated with Romein on a number of articles on Stop Child Abuse, did not respond to contact requests. Bellingcat's staff could not be reached for comment either. Journalist Van der Noordaa, who considered Romein "a good friend", said, when asked, he did not know anything about Romein’s conviction. A scandal arose around Van der Noordaa earlier when it emerged that he combined his journalistic work with work for NATO and the Ukrainian authorities. "It is quite clear that cooperation with a foreign power or NATO can damage your credibility as an independent journalist," secretary general Thomas Bruning of Dutch Association of Journalists NVJ reacted. Van der Noordaa accused MH17 researcher Max van der Werf of “having spread disinformation” about MH17 “on behalf of the Russian military intelligence service GRU”. He substantiated this claim by refering to an article on the Bellingcat website. There is no mention in this article of Van der Werff being in contact with members of the GRU. Chief editor Xandra Schutte of weekly De Groene, who published the article of Van der Noordaa, refuses to rectify. De Groene is sponsored by Dutch billionaire Rob Defares.
In 2019, Romein, along with Bellingcat colleagues Christo Grozev and Roman Dobrokhotov, won the Investigative Reporting Award of the European Press Prize for an article they had written on the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. In 2020, a Bellingcat article on child pornography by Romein and his colleagues Carlos Gonzales and Timmi Allen was nominated for the European Press Prize's Innovation Award. In the following year, Romein was stripped of all its glory. The European Press Prize posted a statement on its website saying that the organisation had received "several substantiated complaints" about Romein from "different people". Which complaints these were and by whom they had been made, the European Press Prize did not comment on that, but it did say that it had decided to remove Romein from their register, and to revoke his laureate status
This is not the first time that Bellingcat has been discredited. German medium Junge Welt revealed that Bellingcat contributor Timmi Allen's real name was Olaf Neitsch. There was a reason he had adopted a pseudonym. In a previous life, he worked for the Stasi, the feared secret service of the DDR, former East Germany.
Media personality and director of the Amsterdam debate centre De Balie Yoeri Albrecht left Bellingcat's Supervisory Board on 1 July 2023 after a video went viral showing him attacking a journalist from the YouTube channel Left Laser and ripping the microphone out of his hand. He did this after the journalist asked him why Albrecht had a busted Russian tank set up in front of the Balie's door. Did this have anything to do with the fact that NATO was a "project benefactor" of De Balie, as stated on the debate centre's website? His attack on the journalist earned Albrecht a swipe from the Dutch Association of Journalists. “You keep your hands off of journalists," tweeted secretary general Thomas Bruning.
Bulgarian Christo Grozev made it to head of research at Bellingcat and appeared in numerous interviews on Dutch TV and elsewhere. In 2023, he suddenly left. This happened after he was discredited for involvement in a failed Ukrainian attempt to get Russian fighter pilots to defect to the enemy, plane and all. Grozev again became discredited when, in an interview with Sky News, he condoned the 2 April 2023 bombing of a St Petersburg cafe in which a war reporter was killed and 30 others injured. The Grayzone reported that this came to the attention of Leslie Aun of the US state agency National Endowment for Democracy, which has funded Bellingcat for years.
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Thanks for this excellent summary. Bellingcat is an extremely shady organization (another useful summary: https://swprs.org/british-media-and-propaganda/). Max and you have done enormously valuable and courageous work on MH17 an related topics.