The prosecution of vice cases in the Netherlands. Transcription by Cora Westerink (1965, Sprang-Capelle)

Jeroen Wollaars, Anchor NewsHour: “Good evening, it is the type of crime of which you hope that it never happens in your neighbourhood and if it does, that the police and judicial authorities go into top gear. But the handling of vice cases is increasingly slow, according to new figures we have collected.

The agreed standard is that 80% of all reports to the police will be submitted to the Public Prosecution Service within six months. As you can see, this is increasingly difficult. It is now only in half of the cases. Joining us is reporter Gert Janssen. Gert, we are not even close to the norm. It’s only been getting less and less over the years, even though the standard was there for a reason. “

Gert Janssen, reporter NewsHour: “No, that standard was agreed in 2014 between the police, the Public Prosecution Service and the courts. Specifically for vice cases, because those are cases that have a lot of impact. They threaten your privacy, you could say. So then the agreement was simply made between them. There will be certain processing times, as they are called. For the police this means that a case that comes in must be forwarded to the Public Prosecutor’s Office within 180 days.”

Jeroen Wollaars: “Yes, this is happening less and less. We will soon see what the figures are for the Public Prosecution Service and the courts. But this is striking and painful, because after, for example, The Voice and other vice cases, politicians are increasingly calling on people to report crimes. Listen to Minister of Justice and Security, Dilan Yesilgös.“

Dilan Yesilgös: “If there are still victims, who have not reported, do so, and then the police can start a criminal investigation with the OM if they deem it necessary in that way.”

Jeroen Wollaars: “She said this in January this year. That is extra painful therefore, Gert Janssen, that that leads to prosecution less and less often, and that is not without consequences.”

Gert Janssen: “No, of course that has a very big impact on victims and on the people around them. Because if you have the courage to go to the police with such a case, you assume that they will investigate it quickly. There may be evidence, there may be witnesses, there may be something in the suspect’s phone. If you don’t hear anything for months, even years, and you have to keep calling and hearing, ‘yes, we are working on it, you are on the pile’. That’s not good at all, not even for processing. I also saw this in a family I spoke to recently. Father and mother have a daughter who was five years old at the time. Two years ago that girl was abused by a member of the family. Since then, they have heard little from the justice system. They wanted to tell their story to us in order to bring this to our attention, but they wanted to be unrecognisable in the picture in order to protect their daughter.

Mother sex victim: “Two years ago we received the message that there was abuse within the family. We then decided to ask our children whether anything had happened to them. My daughter, who was five at the time, came up with such detailed examples…innocent as a child. I knew right then, this is completely wrong.

Father of sex victim: “Our children regularly went to that family member. We saw them often and it was all very familiar and very good…and suddenly you hear this. You suddenly realise that it may have been all wrong for years.”

Voiceover News Hour employee: “The parents report to the police. Parents and daughter are questioned, but then nothing happens for two years. Not even when the parents receive information that young children are still visiting the family member concerned.”

Father of sex victim: “We have informed the police about this. This is still going on. Police said: ‘Good that you mention it, this is important, now it is a possible danger to others, we are now making it a priority case. That means: it’s going to be picked up quickly now.’ Well, that was about a year ago, and even then, just nothing more.”

Mother sex victim: “Yes, if you haven’t heard anything after a while, and ask again how things are going, you are told that you have become a ‘shelf case’. It’s hard to imagine what that does to you. You literally see yourself in a file on a shelf, gathering dust. that’s just not on.”

Voice-over News Hour employee: “This case is not the only shelf case. The police now have 808 cases on the shelf. Cases that have been pending for more than six months. That also bothers the vice investigators themselves.”

Jan Struijss Police Union: “This very morning I spoke to a vice investigator who has been working in this profession for more than 20 years. He says that for the past five months he has been lying awake thinking about the things he cannot do, while he has been talking to the victims, knowing that this could take months or years.” 

Voiceover News Hour employee: “At the beginning of this month, it appears that the case is being taken up after all. Interviews are being scheduled with family members who know the perpetrator.”

Mother sex victim: “A day before the first witness was to be heard, we were called off the case by an unknown detective who simply announced in a 5-minute conversation, without giving any reason or explanation, that it was not going to happen… It was as if you were being pushed over the edge, as if you were worth nothing, as if your case was not important.”

Father of sex victim: “After a lot of buts and mutters they said there were probably too many capacity problems. But that makes it even more incomprehensible to me. Those capacity problems have been there for two years. So now suddenly it’s a reason to take a case off the table. Incomprehensible.”

Ruth Jager, lawyer parents sex victim: “Yes, that is really terrible. I don’t think you can treat people like that. Your trust is betrayed and you become the victim of a system that doesn’t work. That makes people very angry and desperate, and rightly so.”

Mother vice victim: “Insanely angry, that we have been in stress for 2 years with our hands in our hair and are not allowed to do anything, and that the person who caused this, just continues with his life, and maybe even makes extra victims, continues. that is indigestible. I can’t live with that.”

Back in the studio:

Jeroen Wollaars, to Gert Janssen: “So this remains with the police, Gert, but you have investigated it further. It also goes wrong further down the line.”

Gert Janssen: “Yes. Once such a case is finished with the police, the file has to go to the public prosecutor’s office. We also have the figures for that. There, the norm is that 80% of all cases must go to court within 180 days. She sees that this is actually worse than with the police. In 2018, 36% of cases were in court within 180 days. In 2021, the figure will have dropped to 34%. So only one third of the cases can be handled within that norm. 

Jeroen Wollaars, to Gert Janssen: “And the final step in that legal process?”

Gert Janssen: “That’s when a case finally reaches the court. We also have figures on that. The norm there is that 80% must reach a verdict within 90 days of the first hearing in court. You see that the court is actually still doing reasonably well. It does not reach 80% either, but that figure fluctuates around 70%.

Jeroen Wollaars, to Gert Janssen: “So in the first instance it mainly goes wrong with the police, then with the Public Prosecution Service. What is the explanation, why?”

Gert Janssen: “Capacity, lack of people, vice investigators, prosecutors who do this. The police didn’t want to react in front of the camera, but they have sent an extensive written response. They say that many people are leaving and that they have to deal with ageing and absenteeism. It also takes a lot of time to train people. So, it’s not working out that way. At the same time, they say that if you look at 2021, there were 900 extra reports, not to mention January 2022 when the scandal surrounding The Voice was broadcast. Then the number of vice cases increased again.”

Jeroen Wollaars, to Gert Janssen: “So this problem is unlikely to get any smaller in the coming period. We’re looking at the reactions you’ve collected on this.’

Jan Struijss, Police Federation: “I see that the figures are going backwards, that it has gone down, while we should be somewhere else right now, given the promises that have been made. This is very worrying for the victims, but also for the rule of law.”

Jasper van der Kemp | Criminologist Vrije Universiteit: “It is worrying that the figures are so low. If you can’t even get half of the cases through in time, it’s worrying to see that this is still going on.”

Voiceover NieuwsUur employee: “Criminologist Van der Kemp is thus critical of the performance of the police in this area, but is even more shocked by the figures of the Public Prosecution Service. Only 34% of all cases are brought to court within the set norm. “

Jasper van der Kemp | Criminologist, Vrije Universiteit: “That is very low indeed. The question is what the bottleneck is with the Public Prosecution Service.”

Judith van Schoonderwoerd den Bezemer | national Public Prosecutor for sexual offences: “There has been a slight improvement. The figure has risen to 39%. But we still think this is too low. Speed is important, but of course it doesn’t say everything. What the Public Prosecution Service also considers very important is that the investigation is conducted in a good, high-quality manner, so that we can also make the prosecution decision carefully. That takes time.” 

News Hour recap: 21 August 2019 |Voiceover News Hour staff member Gert Janssen: “After an earlier slow approach to a vice case in the summer of 2019, the Lower House decided that 90 additional vice investigators should be added for 15 million euros. But this has not yet led to any improvement.”

Ruth Jager, lawyer parents sex victim: “We also see that the police are doing their best, but there are just so many cases left. What’s more, the number of cases is increasing. The backlogs are not decreasing.”

Voiceover NieuwsUur employee Gert Janssen: “The OM does not see any rapid improvement. Certainly not if there are going to be extra reports, after all the publicity about sexually transgressive behaviour.”

Judith van Schoonderwoerd den Bezemer | national public prosecutor for sexual offences: “Every case that is brought is assessed by a public prosecutor who specialises in sexual offences. So we look at every case. Unfortunately, some cases will have to wait longer. But that does not mean that we think that victims should not report, or should not report to the police. We still ask that. Still report to the police if there is a sex offence.”

Jan Struijss, Police Federation: “I see very nice statements and goodwill coming from The Hague, but I see no money, and I see no extra resources coming. My gloom also extends to the victims. That also eats away at vice investigators, because perpetrators don’t stop, they just keep going.”

Jeroen Wollaars, to Gert Janssen: “So it affects not only the victims, but also the police officers who are working on it, we just heard. Yet that is complicated, because we just heard, in the 2019 report, about extra money and extra people. Apparently, there are still capacity problems. So how should this continue?”

Gert Janssen: “That is also what MPs in The Hague are wondering at the moment. They are astonished and shocked by these figures. They say that if someone takes the courageous step of reporting a crime, they expect their report to be handled quickly and carefully and a decision to be reached quickly. So they don’t understand how this can be, and with hindsight they are also very surprised about an answer Minister Grapperhaus gave at the end of September 2021 to parliamentary questions. In it he said that there was cautious improvement. The MPs are now saying “why?” those figures don’t indicate that at all. So what they now want to know from the current misnister is how it is that despite a lobby of many years and the availability of extra money and extra people, the detection fails. They also say that it is disastrous for the rule of law, when you have to wait so long for your case, and when cases are even dismissed. That is just not acceptable. They really want it to be clear now why and what can be done about it in the short term.

Jeroen Wollaars, to Gert Janssen: “We will keep an eye on it, thanks for this story Gert Janssen.”

Overview of 14 translated news items and 14 self-written (some of them published) articles