A 14-year-old Belgian boy was violently assaulted due to his sexual orientation after school in Turnhout, Antwerp, on Friday. In the disturbing footage, he is surrounded, forced to kneel on the ground, and then is kneed and punched in the face.
The mother told Belgian media that her son was targeted because he is bisexual.
“Twenty children were waiting for Maro,” the victim’s mother stated. “A boy forced my son to get down on his knees. He had to say sorry because he is bisexual. Then, the images speak for themselves.”
In the footage, the perpetrator clearly knew he was being filmed and even laughed at the camera.
Maro, the 14-year-old victim, walked out of the school gate of the Holy Sepulchre in Apostoliekenstraat in Turnhout on Friday afternoon. There, he was met by a group of children around his age who had previously targeted him online.
Hoe lang blijven onze verantwoordelijken nog toekijken terwijl criminele vreemdelingen onze samenleving ondermijnen? In Turnhout zetten ze zelfs een kermis op zijn kop. Genoeg is genoeg. Haal dit tuig van straat en doe de angst van kamp veranderen! pic.twitter.com/zpYUHLlpP0
— Tom Van Grieken (@tomvangrieken) August 19, 2025“My son was first targeted online in a group chat. Apparently, it was agreed in that chat to tackle him. When my son walked outside the school gate on Friday, he was met by about 20 children from different schools,” his mother stated.
“He has a bruised jaw, his nose was cut open, and he also complains of a headache. But the mental consequences are especially great. My son no longer dares to go to school. He has been home from school for at least 14 days,” the mom of the victim explains.
According to the statements made to the police, Maro was forced by the group to go to another location. The violence then occurred in a street near the Sint-Jozefcollege in Turnhout.
The mother wants to tell her story to address the senseless violence, but in the interest of the investigation, she asks that the people involved be made unrecognizable on screen.
According to the victim’s mother, the minor aggressor was a student at the Talent School in Turnhout, but was said to have already been suspended there for other misconduct at the time of the incident.
“On Monday, we were able to contact the police to file a complaint. An investigation has been started, but we have to wait and see what that will yield. We fear that the perpetrator will get away without punishment,” she says. “There had been talk about his orientation before, but it never got out of hand as it has now happened. Maro has always remained himself. He’s not ashamed of it either.”
The prosecutor’s office confirms that an investigation is underway, but does not wish to comment for the time being.
Although the background of the perpetrators has not been released, the crowd targeting the bisexual youth appears to be non-White, with a Black teen youth also spotted in the background.
Other incidents involving violence from foreigners have been filmed in the same neighborhood, including this large-scale brawl from last year.
Hoe lang blijven onze verantwoordelijken nog toekijken terwijl criminele vreemdelingen onze samenleving ondermijnen? In Turnhout zetten ze zelfs een kermis op zijn kop. Genoeg is genoeg. Haal dit tuig van straat en doe de angst van kamp veranderen! pic.twitter.com/zpYUHLlpP0
— Tom Van Grieken (@tomvangrieken) August 19, 2025Migrant gangs have also targeted foreigners in Belgium before.
In 2020, a migrant gang called “Criminal Justice” beat numerous LGBT victims in Leuven, Belgium.
In the video, they forced a White teenage boy to apologize and lick their shoes. In the video, the word ‘Zemmel’ is heard, which is a slur that Moroccans commonly use for gay people.
An investigation by Het Laatste Nieuws found that the video was connected to a gang of youths called “Criminal Justice“ or “Criminal System,” which the paper says is hunting young LGBT people in Belgium.
Incredibly, the news network also found one of the victims, who was also targeted in Antwerp, just like in this latest case. He was also forced to get on his knees under threat of a beating.
There is remarkably little willingness to speak out among the young victims, yet HLN recorded testimony from one young man from Antwerp. The victim said that he was chased and threatened together with a friend at Groenplaats in Antwerp.
“A little further down the road from us, two men were playing loud music. When we left, they suddenly started to chase us. And a little later, I was threatened via Instagram. I agreed to talk to them, which I shouldn’t have done. They threatened me badly. I had to get on my knees and apologize. What if I hadn’t? Then I would have been beaten badly.”
Criminal Justice also reportedly had an Instagram page, but the Telegram group had the most members. About 400 videos and photos were shared among 600 members, and explicit violence was central to all of them.
The group was mostly made up of Chechens, and they explicitly glorified violence against gay people and called for their slaughter.
