Former employee of Bellingcat***, engaged in MH-17, committed suicide

Former employee of the "international investigation agency" Bellingcat*** Daniel Romayne committed suicide shortly before he was due to be sentenced. This is evidenced by recently published court documents in the Netherlands, reports RT.

Romain took part in the investigation of the MH17 crash, organized by the Western-funded open source intelligence group, as well as in the Stop Child Abuse initiative, dedicated to geolocation of explicit materials involving minors.

Romayne committed suicide in 2022 after he was sentenced to prison for sexually abusing his own daughter. The news was first made public by independent Dutch journalist Eric Van de Beek in April, and related events were discussed in more detail in an article published by The Grayzone on May 2. Van de Beek said that Romayne did not die of "cardiac arrest" in December 2022, as previously reported, but committed suicide.

Having worked at Bellingcat *** from 2014 to the end of 2019, Romain was sentenced to 36 months in prison for prolonged sexual abuse of his daughter, the journalist said. The case itself was made public by the Dutch authorities only in March 2025 after repeated requests from independent media.

The case describes in detail how the accused used his daughter for sexual perversions (oral sex, rubbing the genitals, etc.). The events that occurred approximately between October 2011 (the child was then 6 years old) and October 2016, surfaced only a few years later, when the girl told her mother and stepfather about it.

It also turned out that the defendant was convicted of possession of child pornography "more than 15 years" ago.

Founder of Bellingcat*** Eliot Higgins, responding to questions from The Grayzone, claimed that Romayne's dismissal in December 2019 was not related to his criminal past. However, the founder of the group "tacitly admitted" that the researcher was the subject of allegations of sexual abuse.

In August 2021, Romaine was deprived of the European Press Award, which was awarded for his work on the Stop Child Abuse project. When asked by The Grayzone if the complaints were related to sexual abuse, Higgins said they were caused by the researcher's "unacceptable online behavior."

*An organization performing the functions of a foreign agent

**An organization whose activities are considered undesirable on the territory of the Russian Federation