Woman secretly filmed by flatmate speaks of trauma of trial

Court proceedings are a daily occurrence, but what they rarely show is how victims experience ‘their’ trial – and what effect it has on their sense of justice.

Hannah – whose name has been changed to protect her identity – in her early 30s, is one such victim. Her flatmate secretly filmed her in their home. While not a physical assault, such crimes can also have devastating consequences.

“We’d been living together for almost ten years when it happened,” said the young woman. Several residents shared the house – partly because of the high rents in Luxembourg. At first, it felt like friendship. They spent time together. Over the years, however, they drifted apart. Trust, she said, should remain the foundation of living together.

“You know, for me personally, there are so many layers to this,” said Hannah. “Firstly: you’re at home. Secondly: it’s someone you know; it’s not just some random flat-share where people come and go.”

Once, she even saved her flatmate’s life when she found the now 28-year-old unconscious – after she’d initially thought it was an overdose or a suicide attempt. “And just a year later, he thought it would be a brilliant idea: ‘I’ll film her with a hidden camera.’”

“I didn’t understand it at first,” she continued. “I thought he might be looking for something in my room because I have cats and I always leave the door slightly open so they can come and go. And one morning I heard footsteps on the wooden floor behind my door. So I went to see what’s going on.”

Then she saw his mobile phone sticking through the crack in the door. “So I said, ‘What are you doing?’ And I didn’t realise that it might have anything to do with me. I just thought: I don’t have anything particularly valuable. And even if I did – we couldn’t lock our doors.”

Very unpleasant and extremely creepy

Nevertheless, she confronted him about it. “I told him: ‘I’m not going to ask you what you were doing, because I know you won’t tell me the truth. But I want you to know that this is very unpleasant and extremely creepy.’ He laughed. “‘Yeah, I agree.’ Okay. Fine. Then I suppose we’re in agreement.”

Days later, Hannah had another uneasy feeling. She had installed a cat camera in her bedroom that took a photo whenever it detects movement. Sure enough, the footage showed her flatmate in her room on several occasions. Then he apparently spotted the camera – about the size of a tennis ball and placed in the middle of the room.

“After that, I was almost obsessively on alert,” said Hannah. Just under a month later, she said she was standing in the kitchen and heard footsteps upstairs again, near her room. She went to check.

At the top of the stairs, she spotted an iPhone hidden amongst some shoes. “I knew straight away: okay, he’s doing it again,” she said. “I quickly tried to fetch my mobile from my room to take a photo – you’re not prepared for something like that, after all. But in the meantime, he came out, took the mobile and put a pair of socks there instead.”

Two weeks later, the situation repeated itself. “That feeling again,” she recalled. “It’s evening, I wanted to have a shower, but I have this strange feeling. I brushed my teeth first, look everywhere, see nothing. So I fetched my towel from my room. When I came back, I saw his phone hidden under the radiator.” She took the iPhone, whose battery is now flat.

“He came out, and I said, ‘This is yours.’ He said, ‘Thanks.’ And I pressed him: ‘What on earth are you doing?’ At first, he said, ‘It fell down, nothing.’ And then eventually: ‘Yeah, I wanted to film you, see how you move around the house, your feet and so on,” Hannah said.

‘But I am a creep’

“And I thought to myself: Yeah. That’s sick. Really sick. I should have shouted at him, to be honest. But I didn’t. I said to him: ‘There’s so much free stuff on the internet. We’ve been living together for so long, and you’re doing this? Just stop. All I can think now is that you’re a creep.’ And he replied, almost as if he were proud of it: ‘But I am a creep,’” she recalled.

By now, Hannah no longer felt safe in her own home and went to the police. “I basically told them what I’m telling you. And the police officer said: ‘You have to confront him and ask him to show you the pictures. Otherwise you’ve got nothing.’ And I thought to myself: Excuse me? Imagine a woman is raped – is the perpetrator supposed to say: ‘Yes, it was me’?,” she said.  

Hannah did indeed confront him, and he maintained that he had deleted everything. She then spoke again to the police officer, who told her that nothing could be done, but that she can file a complaint if she wishes, which she did.

Months later, she was summoned for questioning by the criminal investigation department. An investigator makes it clear that the initial officers should have seized the mobile phone – the previous information she had received had simply been incorrect. This has consequences, as the device was only seized much later. By that point, the numerous videos had already been deleted. Only low-resolution preview images could be recovered – thumbnails.

Around this time, the landlord terminated the flat-share tenancy to take the property back for personal use. “I eventually found myself a new flat. A flat-share was no longer an option. My rent doubled as a result. It took an enormous amount of energy – mentally and financially,” said Hannah.

For a year-and-a-half, Hannah heard nothing more. Shortly before Christmas, she received a summons informing her that there would be a court hearing in three weeks’ time.

Indication of more victims

“I’ve never been to court before,” she said. “How am I supposed to gather evidence over Christmas? Reports from my therapist, who isn’t working? Do I need a lawyer?,” she said, ultimately opting against getting a lawyer, something which she described as “a big mistake”.

In court, she recounted the events again. “But the judge only asked up to the point where I went to the police. Nothing after that was taken into account,” said Hannah.

Yet, she had clearly seen clues in the preview images the criminal investigation department showed her during her hearing: photos of flatmates, pictures taken outside the flat, even a photo taken from under a desk that apparently came from his workplace.

“During the trial, he tried to portray it as a fetish,” said Hannah. “I say: one doesn’t rule out the other. You can have a fetish and still be a creep.” She sees the verdict – a six-month suspended prison sentence and a €1,000 fine – as a further humiliation.

Shortly after giving her statement to the police, she suffered a burnout, to which recent events had contributed significantly. Had she not had to deal with the case, she would have had far more energy to face the other pressures in her life, Hannah believes. After six months on sick leave, her employer dismissed her, and she has been unemployed ever since.

“I claimed €50,000, got €1,000. I submitted reports, including from my therapist. And that’s being used against me,” she said. The judge confronted her about the fact that she had previously had mental health problems. “I was completely stunned. I said, ‘We all have problems. I’m working on it.’ He implied that I was burnt out anyway, as I’d already been under such strain before.”

Disillusionment at sentence

During the trial, Hannah said she asked herself: “What am I actually doing here? Lots of people have seen me naked here, and now I’m being judged?” She just wanted it to be over.

“I explained how much this had affected me, and there was a lot I didn’t even mention. I haven’t started a relationship in two years. Even with small things – like someone looking after my cats – I have to psych myself up if it’s a man. The court clearly isn’t interested in that,” she said.

“When I heard the verdict, I got angry,” she said. “No prison sentence. A choice between therapy or six months in prison. Basically, no consequences.”

Hannah refuses to accept the verdict. “I have 40 days to appeal. I’m unemployed. Lawyers are expensive,” she said, but added that she had reconsidered after researching the issue, with lawyers costing more than €400 an hour, and several hours’ work involved. “I’m going to do it anyway,” she said.

However, the strain has mounted and is also leading to further health consequences. Since the verdict, her autoimmune condition has worsened. “I have a chronic skin condition, psoriasis, which can also affect the joints. Despite treatment, it is now spreading further,” she explained.

Hannah said she has the impression that such offences are not taken seriously. “If I’d evaded tax, the penalty would be much higher,” she said. “I now understand why many people don’t report things like this.

“In the end, they say: ‘Prove that you’re a victim,’” said Hannah.

(This article was originally published by the Luxemburger Wort. Machine translated using AI, with editing and adaptation by Alex Stevensson)