Court drops case against Dutch father who isolated family

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - A Dutch court ruled Thursday that a deeply religious father who kept some of his children isolated from the outside world for years in a remote farmhouse can't stand trial on charges including child sexual abuse because he has been incapacitated by a stroke.

The decision came after prosecutors last month asked the court in the northern city of Assen to drop the case because the 68-year-old suspect wasn't fit to stand trial.

It brings to an end a case that made headlines around the world after one of the man's sons raised the alarm and authorities discovered the father had been living for years with six of his children in the farmhouse in the eastern Netherlands.

At a preliminary hearing in January last year, prosecutors portrayed the father, identified only as Gerrit Jan van D., as a deeply religious man who saw his family as 'œchosen by God'ť and did everything in his power - including physical beatings and other punishments - to keep them from succumbing to what he considered malign outside influences.

The court ruled Thursday that a 2016 stroke had so badly affected the father's ability to communicate that continuing with the case would breach his fair trial rights.

'œHe doesn't sufficiently understand what is happening in the courtroom,'ť court spokesman Marcel Wolters said in a video statement.

The six children who were kept on the farm are now all young adults. Three older siblings had earlier left the family's isolated life. Their mother died in 2004.