Stroud has spent five years in Pointe Blanche Prison, including pretrial detention, with a brief interruption for a medical transfer to Colombia, where he underwent ear surgery to address his hearing. He told the three judges on Wednesday that he had lost part of his hearing due to a form of leukemia that was diagnosed late—but in time to prevent him from losing his eyesight as well.
“Is it now under control?” one of the judges asked, while the Advocaat-Generaal noted that Stroud appeared fitter and more composed than during the 2022 court hearing.
“Yes, I take medication daily, which keeps it under control,” Stroud replied.
The former UTS employee, a trained engineer with 24 years of experience, removed the hearing implant from his right ear and explained to the judges that it represents the latest technology. He said the device works with an app that would allow him to use a microphone and access additional features—if only he were allowed to have a phone.
Currently, he must rely on a remote control, which keeps all sounds at the same level and does not allow adjustments. Stroud pleaded with the judges to allow him to have a phone so he could fully utilize the capabilities of his advanced hearing aid.
Double arrest
A phone was also what led to his exposure in 2021 and resulted in his pretrial detention.
Following complaints that former school secretary Joy Walters had taken pictures of pupils’ private parts at school using her phone, she told police that her boyfriend, Stroud, had demanded she take the photos and send them to him. Detectives found disturbing images on her phone but none on his, as Stroud had recently acquired a new phone and disposed of his old one.
On Wednesday in court, Bernard Stroud denied receiving child pornographic images from Joy Walters – who was arrested on the same day - and said he never asked her to take such pictures.
“She was into little girls, just like my wife is,” he told the judges. “I have nothing to do with that,” he added, saying he could not understand what satisfaction anyone would get from sexual activity with children.
Threesomes
Stroud was born in Aruba and moved with his family to St. Maarten as a minor. After Hurricane Luis devastated the island in 1995, his parents and two brothers returned to Aruba, but Stroud, then 25, chose to remain on St. Maarten.
He has three children with three different women, including Walters, whom he met when she was 16. He said he waited a year before having sex with her, after she turned 17. At the time, he was 34 years old.
Stroud lived with his then-wife, Regine Stroud-Martina, and their daughter in Belvedere. A few houses down the street lived Walters with her mother. Judicial investigations—the Pandora investigation, launched in April 2021—found that Stroud, his wife and Walters had been involved in a “love triangle” for roughly ten years.
Stroud told the court that all encounters were consensual. He spoke openly about threesomes and, in response to questions from the judges, discussed a relationship with another 17-year-old from St. Peters. After her brother was shot and killed, she moved from her mother’s home to her father’s residence in Belvedere, just a few houses from the Stroud home. The defendant gestured left and right to show the judges that both of his extramarital partners lived just steps away from his family home.
According to Stroud, everyone—including the girl’s father—knew they were in a relationship. His wife, Walters and the girl would sometimes have sex together, and he would often take the girl to his bedroom upstairs while her two much younger sisters and his young daughter were in the Stroud residence.
His bedroom did not have a lock. One of the younger children opened the door while he was having sex, and he pushed it closed. When the child continued trying to enter, he asked: “Why are you doing that? Do you want to join?”
Stroud told the judges on Wednesday that it had been a joke. “It was a bad joke. I never meant to do anything with her,” he said.
The defendant’s attorney, Shaira Bommel of Bommel & Associates, said she believes in her client’s innocence. “Just because my client has a sexual life that is different from most people’s does not mean he is a rapist and a child molester,” she said.
New incriminating statements
Bommel said she was very surprised by new statements made by Walters that were added to the case file. While Walters had been very cautious in her statements in 2021 police interrogations and during the 2022 court hearing, she provided more detailed information during additional interrogations in 2023, after she had been sentenced to 13 years in prison.
She stated that Stroud expected both her and his wife to bring girls who needed homework assistance—Stroud-Martina worked as a teacher. They had “to bring them and keep them in check.” They were expected to make sure the girls would not talk and to keep them “happy” by giving them candy, food and drinks.
According to Walters, she had to focus on girls with “life issues.” “He liked them freaky,” Walters told detectives.
Asked by the judges what he meant by “freaky,” Stroud said he did not understand the question. “Freaky? I never said that. I like them sexy,” he replied, explaining that he was referring to adult women, not children.
High libido
Frans Heijtel, a psychiatrist based in Curaçao who examined Stroud, found no pathological disorder in the defendant. According to the psychiatrist, Stroud cannot be classified as a pedophile. He reportedly has a high libido and has led a very active sexual life. Stroud is said to exhibit narcissistic traits and a tendency to blame others rather than accept responsibility.
On Wednesday in court, Stroud said he did not understand why the then-17-year-old girl, more than ten years later, told police that he had started having sex with her when she was thirteen.
He told the judges he believes her motive was money. He also said she was jealous of Walters, who had Stroud’s child, and that the girl wanted to have his child as well.
His two lovers were constantly fighting, he said. “I should have put a stop to that. It is my mistake that I did not, because look what it brought me. My weakness got me in trouble.”
‘False statements’
According to his lawyer, Walters’ statements are untruthful. Bommel also claims that the reports made by the four alleged victims are not based on the truth.
“Two of the girls were already sexually active,” Bommel said. “It is entirely possible that they became victims of sexual abuse in their own home environment or at school. But the prosecution did not investigate this alternative scenario.”
Bommel also argued that the younger children were influenced by the older ones before making their police statements and that they coordinated their stories. “They had a chat group in which they discussed things with each other,” the attorney said.
The youngest victim was six years old. According to Stroud, the child sometimes slept in his living room together with her two sisters on a pull-out couch, or stayed overnight with Walters. “I don’t know what happened in that house. I am not responsible for that,” Stroud said.
Walters was later sentenced on appeal to eight years in prison, a sentence that is now final. According to Stroud, the mother of his child is desperate to see her son and that is why she is blaming him—or, as his attorney put it, “throwing him under the bus.”
“As a lawyer I have handled several sexual offense cases on St. Maarten,” Bommel said. “In these cases it is often assumed that the women are telling the truth and that the man is guilty. But my experience is that women sometimes make false statements.”
Confessions
According to Attorney-General (AG) Robbert-Jan Boswijk, who also prosecuted the case in the Court of First Instance, the new statements made by Walters are credible. “First of all because she implicated herself,” the prosecutor said. “She admitted what she had done, telling investigators: ‘I am not right in my head.’”
Walters made several confessional statements during the appeal proceedings that support the statements made by the victims, the prosecutor said. “These statements not only support the individual charges, but also show the power Stroud had over the girls, how he persuaded others to assist him in the abuse, and the ruthlessness with which he acted.”
The probation service concluded that the risk of reoffending must be considered high. It also found that the defendant does not take responsibility for the offenses he is accused of.
The consequence of Stroud’s actions, the AG stated, is that several victims will struggle for the rest of their lives with the traumatic experiences they endured during their time at Stroud’s residence.
“This is a criminal case that requires societal vigilance so that crimes like these can be discovered and stopped,” the AG said.
After being sentenced on July 7, 2022, to 17 years in prison—also for possession of marijuana, a firearm and ammunition—Stroud filed an appeal the following day, July 8.
The reasonable time limit for the appeal has been exceeded, largely due to the medical treatment Stroud required. The prosecution considers a six-month reduction appropriate and is therefore requesting a prison sentence of 16.5 years on appeal.
The court is expected to deliver its ruling on March 26, 2026.
