The 54-year-old former team chief of the Haarlemmermeer police, Paulo de C., was sentenced by the Central Netherlands court on Thursday. acquitted of the rape in 2019 of a then 39-year-old senior officer from his team. The woman had reported rape by the man in 2020. The Public Prosecution Service demanded a three-year prison sentence against the man two weeks ago.
The court rules that the declarant “has made varying, incomplete and essentially inconsistent statements on crucial points”.
The woman said in the report that she was forced to give her boss a blowjob in a car on an industrial estate. Only later did she also say that she had to French kiss the man against her will and was satisfied by him with his fingers. “That while these events must have made a great impression on the complainant and they are not about details,” said the court. Because the woman has not always told the same story completely, the court considers her statements “unreliable and not useful for evidence”.
According to the court, the file in this case also contains no supporting evidence. The OM thinks otherwise. According to the prosecutor, the victim “made a reliable report”. The prosecution listed all kinds of supporting evidence in its closing statement during the hearing. Investigation has shown that the team leader asked in an app message whether she was interested in anal sex. The court will not comment on this message. The reporter is also supported by a police officer she confided in after the events. According to the court, the fact that she was upset at the time could also fit in with the suspect’s scenario that the woman had made advances in the car and he had rejected her angrily.
‘Disappointing verdict’
A spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service speaks of “a disappointing verdict”. Justice says it will first study the verdict in detail before a decision is made about whether to appeal against the acquittal.
The declarant says through her lawyer Tim Vis that the verdict “feels like a blow. She is held by the court to an unsigned, incomplete record of an emotional interview, rather than her full and consistent report and subsequent statements.”
Lawyer Vis calls it strange that “the court does not mention the allusion to anal sex that the suspect subsequently sent by app. The court also leaves the court completely unmentioned as well as tapped conversations in which she indicates that she was coerced by the suspect, and statements by other police officers who confirm her story and who have seen his compelling, sexually tinted messages.
The former team chief, who no longer works for the police, says through his lawyer Magrete van der Steeg that he is relieved. “He has the desire to draw a line under all this.”
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