---
category: Esoteric & Historical Concept
date: 1998-06
location: Zandvoort, Netherlands
summary: The Apollo Disks were a collection of encoded digital disks containing evidence
  of the international child pornography network operated through the Apollo Bulletin
  Board Service by Gerrit-Jan Ulrich from Zandvoort, Netherlands.
tags:
- Thing
- Evidence
- Apollo_Network
- Netherlands
- 1990s
- Child_Pornography
- Snuff_Films
---

The Apollo Disks were a collection of encoded digital disks containing evidence of the international child pornography network operated through the [Apollo Bulletin Board Service](/organizations/apollo-bulletin-board-service/) by [Gerrit-Jan Ulrich](/people/gerrit-jan-ulrich/) from Zandvoort, Netherlands. Ulrich handed the disks to private investigator [Marcel Vervloesem](/people/marcel-vervloesem/) during their meeting in June 1998, before fleeing to Italy where he was murdered. Ulrich also hid a cache of additional disks beneath a floorboard in his apartment, which contained information on his network of associates and clients.[^1]

Vervloesem passed the Apollo Disks to his colleague [Gina Pardaens-Bernaer](/people/gina-pardaens-bernaer/) at the [Morkhoven Workgroup](/organizations/morkhoven-workgroup/), who made copies before they were given to Dutch police. Pardaens-Bernaer identified a perpetrator linked to the [Marc Dutroux](/people/marc-dutroux/) network in a snuff film on the disks, telling friends before her death about "a video tape in which a girl is being murdered during a sex party" where "she believed one of the perpetrators to be an acquaintance of [Jean-Michel Nihoul](/people/jean-michel-nihoul/)." Two days before her death in a car crash in November 1998, Pardaens-Bernaer sent copies of the Apollo Disks to the International Committee for the Dignity of the Child in Geneva with a letter stating her life had been threatened.[^1]

The disks found at Ulrich's apartment contained tens of thousands of images and videos showing extremely violent sexual abuse of children, including infants. Information on the disks identified suppliers including [Warwick Spinks](/people/warwick-spinks/) and [Lothar Glandorf](/people/lothar-glandorf/). Members of the Morkhoven Workgroup believed they identified [Katrien de Cuyper](/people/katrien-de-cuyper/) in pornographic photos found on the Apollo Disks. A document on the disks contained a detailed order list for accessing infants for sex.[^1]

[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). *Eye of the Chickenhawk*. United States: Thehotstar.