The events date back to January 2019, when the victim was in a relationship with a member of the Zennevallei intervention service, whom she met during her student job at the police station. She went with him to a hotel room in Ghent, where he allegedly convinced her to participate in a threesome with another colleague.
The young woman consented to the sex but explained that she never agreed to it being filmed. The two men secretly recorded and then sent the footage to colleagues, the court said. It appears that many colleagues had seen the footage from the hotel room when the girl returned to the Zennevallei area in 2021 for a training course.
The chief of police immediately launched an investigation, but it proved to be extremely laborious. Everyone interviewed said they had heard of the footage but no one acknowledged having watched it. Lawyers for the two detectives asked for an acquittal. The two men assumed that the young woman would not object to it being filmed and there was no evidence that they had released the images, the lawyers argued. However, the court did eventually find evidence proving the statements wrong.
Both defendants were given a 12-month prison sentence, six months of which were suspended. The Zennevallei police claimed compensation of 40,000 euros for the damage to its reputation and to cover the costs of disciplinary proceedings and the replacement of the inspectors involved. As for the young woman, she asked for moral compensation of 2,500 euros.
Her career has suffered as a result, her lawyer explained. She had to move to another police area, although she was proud to be able to work as a policewoman in her region, in Hal. The court awarded her 2,750 euros in compensation, while the police zone received 1,000 euros in compensation.
