Clarice Stenger is scolded by the police. They distance themselves from the statements made by the criminal lawyer in RTL Boulevard about sex cases. “This is on her account.”
It has long been a source of annoyance that sex crimes involving celebrities are trivialized by certain figures in the media. In that context, Clarice arouses suspicion and irritation with her following claim in RTL Boulevard: “If you ask the vice squad, you will see that many reports ultimately turn out to be false.”
Vice police pissed off
Clarice made this statement during a discussion about the case against Marco Borsato. The viewers of the TV program could therefore think that there must also be a ‘false’ declaration here. And that while Telegraaf journalist John van den Heuvel, who has seen all the documents, considers the chance of prosecution very likely.
Lawyer Sébas Diekstra, who assists several victims of The Voice of Holland, has spoken about this with the vice squad and they are not amused that Clarice refers to them in her claim. “She certainly didn’t get it from us,” said a spokesman for the vice squad.
At her expense
The vice squad distance themselves from Clarice. “These statements are really on her account. We at the police always assume the lawfulness of the report. If something is not proven, we do not immediately consider the declaration to be false,” said the press officer.
Sébas adds: “In addition, there are hardly any convictions for making a false report in sex crimes. Especially in relation to the number of sexual assault cases. So there are not ‘many’. In the Netherlands, someone is innocent until proven guilty by an independent criminal court, even when it comes to filing a false report.”
5 or 20 percent?
Boulevard host Luuk Ikink speaks of an ‘interesting discussion’ after a diatribe from Yvonne Coldeweijer. She states that American research shows that only 5 percent of the reports in sex cases would be false, but the presenter tweets that Dutch research shows that this is 20 percent.
The well-known lawyer Richard Korver says about this: “There is research underway and research done by André de Zutter and that says 1 in 20 is false. Will you read RTL Boulevard?”
“Watch out, Clarice!”
All in all, enough reason for Yvonne to issue a serious warning to Clarice. The juice queen writes: “It is absolutely not true what Clarice says. I think she should be careful with statements like this, because this can discourage victims from reporting.”
“And just after The Voice of Holland we are fighting so hard to ensure that girls who have experienced something unpleasant do dare to stand up for themselves. No more shame!“