‘A court in Amsterdam has begun hearing testimony from nine witnesses into allegations that senior politicians knew about and used underage male prostitutes in the 1980s.

Among those implicated are Prince Claus, the late husband of former queen Beatrix, the former finance minister and executive director of the international monetary fund Onno Rudding, and former Amsterdam mayor Ed van Thijn, the Algemeen Dagblad reports.

Koos van Woudenberg, the first witness to give evidence, claimed to have been abused at a young age in the home of professor Ger van Roon in Amsterdam. He told the court he had performed oral sex on Rudding and saw Prince Claus at a bar ‘in relation to young boys’.’

Read more: Politicians and officials named in court as ‘boy brothel’ case begins