Women's prison guard suspected of sexual abuse

A 47-year-old man from Amsterdam was detained by police on suspicion of sexual abusing female detainees in the Nieuwersluis women's prison in the province of Utrecht. Spokespeople from the Public Prosecution Service (OM) and the Judicial Institutions Service (DJI) confirmed reports about this published in De Telegraaf and De Volkskrant.

The man was arrested on Tuesday in an ongoing police investigation, the spokesman for the OM said. "The man is suspected of having abused three female detainees in the P.I. Nieuwersluis between 2010 and 2016 as a prison employee."

The man was scheduled to be be brought before the examining magistrate on Thursday, where the public prosecutor will ask for the suspect's pre-trial detention to be extended. The investigation is still ongoing, the OM said. Upon completion of the investigation, the officer will make a decision to prosecute.

The spokesperson for the DJI, the suspect's employer, said the man was suspended by the prison board pending the police investigation. "Due to the ongoing police investigation, I cannot make any further statements. We can only confirm that the penitentiary institution employee has been arrested by the police."