“Professional secrecy is absolute and perpetual. It doesn’t matter if the client is alive or whatever.” In a rocking chair, former lawyer Anthony Wijnberg leafs through a pile of papers. It is one of the closing scenes of the documentary The Snowmanfrom director Flynn von Kleist, which can be seen on Videoland from Wednesday.
The documentary deals, among other things, with the case of the seven-year-old girl Cheryl Morriën, who disappeared from her hometown of IJmuiden in August 1986, after she had returned from a holiday in Italy. The girl lived with her parents in a flat against the dunes, and was going to visit a friend that morning. She never got there and she’s been missing ever since.
In 2002, two informants spoke to the police and the judiciary on condition of anonymity about the case. Cheryl Morriën is said to have been murdered by Michel S.: a truck driver who was convicted of triple child murder and sentenced to twenty years in prison. Born in Belgium, S. died in 2001 as a result of burns suffered in an accident in detention.
The information from the tipsters was judged to be very reliable by the police, but because Michel S. was no longer alive, the case was dropped.
Who the tipsters were never came out. Until now. Because in the documentary a tipster comes forward: the former lawyer of S., Anthony Wijnberg. He confesses a mortal sin in the legal profession, violating professional secrecy. In 2002 Wijnberg told the investigating authorities that his client had confided in him about the murder of Cheryl Morriën. Michel S. would have killed her and buried her “somewhere in the dunes”.
What did S. tell you?
“Michel S. had to stand trial in the early 1990s for several murders of children. He was eventually convicted of three murders: that of eleven-year-old Jessica Laven, nine-year-old Salim Thattil and thirteen-year-old Marco Weisser. But before the trial, I spent two days with him in a small room at the police station.
Also read this reconstruction: The girl who disappeared one summer day
And then he told me that he was also responsible for the murder of Cheryl Morriën, a girl who disappeared in 1986 and was never found.”
How did it go?
“Without emotion. He did not go into details, but said very soberly that he had done so. He also mentioned Cheryl’s name. I then tried to turn off any emotion I might feel about it. That worked in the case. But I remember coming into the office after the case and my secretary, who had gone with me, burst into tears. Then I decided: I will never do a criminal case again.”
That officer played on my emotion and that always works for me
You knew of involvement in an infanticide, so your client was not convicted because he didn’t say anything about it in court.
“But I couldn’t do anything with it. Because of professional secrecy. Just after the turn of the century I got a call from a prosecutor. I was on vacation in Switzerland. Michel S. had already passed away by then. That officer played on my emotion and talked about relatives who were looking for peace. That always works for me. First I said: I can’t say anything about it. But he promised he would never mention my name. Then I told him what Michel S. had told me about ten years earlier.”
And with that, you broke your secrecy.
“That’s right, because I’m a stupid jerk. Which lawyer is now breaking his secrecy and also admits it in a documentary? But I did it out of compassion. I couldn’t live with it, thinking about those seeking parents.”
Are you going to have problems with it?
“I think so. But I have not been a lawyer of my own choice for two years now, I am now a lawyer in health law. So what can they do? I can no longer be banned as a lawyer. Not knowing what happened to your daughter for 35 years seems awful for a parent. I wanted to get rid of it.”
The documentary shows how you tell Cheryl Morriën’s mother that S. confessed to you that he was the murderer.
“Yes, but they don’t believe it. They are still considering that Cheryl may still be alive. That makes it painful for me too. I watched the documentary with a stomachache. All the feelings I hid back then came back. A kind of revival. But also the feeling: I have been working on this for over thirty years, have now told Cheryl’s mother, but what has it all been good for? It made no sense that I told them. That’s sad, but that’s the way it is.”
The documentary The Snowman by director Flynn von Kleist about child killer Michel S. will be available on Videoland from 25 May.
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