In 2011, Simonis testified on 25 January that he had no role in the appointment or dismissal of a Catholic priest accused of drugging and raping a young man. The brief appearance by Simonis at Middelburg District Court marked the first time such a senior cleric had appeared in a Dutch courtroom to answer questions about abuse in the church. The victim, Dave ten Hoor, says he was drugged and raped twice by the priest, identified only as Father Jan N., in 1989 and 1990 in the southern town of Terneuzen. "I do not know him at all," Simonis said of Father Jan, adding that he had nothing to do with his appointment as a priest in Terneuzen. Simonis was drawn into the case because before moving to Terneuzen, Father Jan also allegedly abused children at a youth centre run by the Salesian order in Rijswijk, a town just outside The Hague. At the time, Simonis was Bishop of Rotterdam and Rijswijk fell within his diocese. However Simonis said he had visited the centre just once for a party and did not recall meeting the priest, though he did not rule out that he may have been introduced to him.
