Sexual offence cases in the Netherlands: the procedure from the report onwards

On 1 July 2024 the Wet seksuele misdrijven (Sexual Offences Act) replaced the whole of Title XIV of the Dutch Criminal Code. Dutch sexual offence law is now built around consent rather than coercion, and contains offences that did not exist before. Most English-language material still describes the old law. This page sets out the current framework and what happens in a case.

What changed on 1 July 2024

Before that date, rape and sexual assault required proof of coercion: force, threat of force, or another act of compulsion. A complainant who froze, did not resist, or was too frightened or too intoxicated to object often fell outside the definitions altogether, however clearly the contact had been unwanted.

The Act changed the starting point. What must be proved is not that the complainant was forced, but that they did not want the contact and that the other person knew this or had serious reason to suspect it. Coercion now raises the maximum sentence rather than founding liability. Each central offence also exists in an intentional and a culpable form, and two forms of conduct were criminalised for the first time: sexually approaching children online (sexchatting) and sexual harassment in public.

The Act has no retroactive effect: conduct before 1 July 2024 is judged under the law as it then stood, which matters greatly in cases reported years later.

The main offence categories under the new Title XIV

Article 254 Sr raises the maximum further in aggravating circumstances, including offences committed by several people, by an official abusing their position, or causing serious injury.

What consent means in the new framework

The Act requires no formal or spoken agreement. It asks whether the other person’s will to engage in the acts was present, and what the accused knew or should have understood. Consent may appear in words or conduct, but must exist at the time and cover what actually happened.

Article 244 Sr states circumstances in which the will is in any event absent: unconsciousness, a reduced state of consciousness, physical incapacity, and a psychological disorder, psychogeriatric condition or intellectual disability such that the person cannot properly form or express a will about the acts, or resist them. Someone asleep, unconscious through drink or drugs, or unable through disability to choose cannot in law be consenting.

What does not amount to consent

• Silence or passivity. Not saying no is not saying yes.
• Freezing. Immobility is a documented response to sexual violence. Under the old law it often defeated a prosecution; it no longer indicates consent.
• Consent to something else. Agreeing to one act does not extend to another; a previous occasion says nothing about this one.
• Consent withdrawn. The will must be present throughout; continuing after the other makes clear they want to stop is an offence.
• An existing relationship. Marriage, cohabitation and a sexual history create no standing permission.
• Abuse of position. Where the complainant is dependent on the accused, apparent agreement may not be a free one.

The culpable variants and why they matter

This is the Act’s most significant practical change, and the most often misunderstood. The intentional offences in arts. 241 and 243 Sr require knowledge: the accused knew the other person’s will was absent, or accepted the substantial chance of it. The culpable offences in arts. 240 and 242 Sr require much less — serious reason to suspect the other did not want the acts, and going ahead anyway. The law expects a person to notice and respond to signals obvious to a reasonable person, and to check where they are ambiguous.

A case therefore does not fail simply because the accused says he believed the contact was wanted; the question is whether that belief was one he was entitled to hold. Equally, a genuine misreading is no longer automatically an answer to the charge, and the difference between acquittal, the culpable offence and the intentional offence can turn on fine detail: what was said, what was visible, how much had been drunk. The difference also shows in the penalties. Since 1 July 2024 culpable sexual assault under art. 240 Sr carries a maximum of two years’ imprisonment or a fourth-category fine, and culpable rape under art. 242 Sr four years or a fourth-category fine. Intentional rape under art. 243 Sr carries nine years or a fifth-category fine, rising to twelve years in its qualified form. The maximum of ten years sometimes still quoted for art. 242 Sr belongs to the text as it stood before 1 July 2024 and no longer applies.

The age-related offences

Sexual acts with a child under 16 are criminal regardless of what the child said or appeared to want, graded by age band with heavier maximums the younger the child. For 16- and 17-year-olds, sexual contact is not in itself an offence, but arts. 245 and 246 Sr apply where an additional circumstance is present: a family or care relationship, authority, particular vulnerability, dependency, deception, gifts or money, or prostitution.

Article 251 Sr covers the intrusive sexual approach of a child under 16, spoken or written, and includes sexchatting: sexually explicit messaging with a child online. It also covers exposing a child to sexual material and proposing a meeting.

Reporting: what happens first

The informative conversation

The police normally begin not with a formal report but with an informative conversation (informatief gesprek), usually held by two officers, at least one a trained sexual offences investigator, and audio-recorded and set down in writing.

The officers explain what a formal report involves, what an investigation would look like, and what it may and may not achieve. They also take a first account: what happened, when and where, who else may know, and whether there are injuries, messages or photographs. The person is told that knowingly making a false report is an offence; this is said to everyone and is not an expression of disbelief. The conversation is not itself a report, and may be recorded only as a melding.

You do not have to report immediately

No one is obliged to report at all, or to decide on the day. The police and the Public Prosecution Service work to the protocol of the informative conversation (informatief gesprek), after which the complainant has a reflection period (bedenktijd) before the report is formally pursued; as a rule that period is fourteen days.

Two things matter here. A report, once made, cannot simply be withdrawn: whether to investigate and prosecute is for the Public Prosecution Service. Saying you no longer wish to take part carries weight but does not end the case. And where there is a serious continuing danger or a strong dependency relationship, the police may proceed without a report.

The specialist interview

The formal report is taken by sexual offences investigators at a police station, and it takes time; several hours is normal, sometimes across more than one session. The officers ask about events in detail and in sequence, and put questions that can feel intrusive or sceptical. That reflects what a court will later require, not a judgement about the account.

A complainant may bring a support person, ask for breaks, ask why a question is put, and is entitled to an interpreter. Interviews with children and particularly vulnerable complainants are conducted by specially trained officers, usually in a purpose-built studio and recorded on video, so the account need not be repeated unnecessarily.

Forensic examination and the Centrum Seksueel Geweld

The Centrum Seksueel Geweld is a national network of doctors, nurses, psychologists, sexual offences officers and case managers, reachable day and night on 0800-0188, free and anonymously.

Timing matters. The centre asks people to make contact within seven days and preferably within 72 hours: that is the window in which biological traces can still be recovered and in which medication to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection, including HIV prophylaxis, is effective. After about seven days an examination will generally no longer yield traces from the body, though clothing, bedding, messages and photographs remain useful far longer.

An examination commits no one to reporting: material can be secured and held so the option stays open, and nothing happens against the wishes of the person who makes contact. Coming forward later, even after years, does not make a case hopeless; many prosecutions succeed with no forensic material.

The investigation, and why these cases turn on statements

Once a report is made, the police investigate under the direction of a public prosecutor: a detailed statement from the complainant, an interview with the suspect, statements from anyone told at the time, examination of telephones and messages, and where relevant medical records, camera footage and location data.

What is usually absent is an independent witness to the act itself. Sexual offences happen in private, and forensic evidence, where it exists, tends to establish that contact occurred rather than whether the will to engage in it was present. These cases therefore turn on the assessment of accounts: their consistency and coherence, their fit with the surrounding evidence, and what was said and done afterwards.

Dutch evidence law imposes a real constraint here. Under art. 342 Sv a court may not base a conviction solely on the statement of a single witness; the complainant’s account must find support elsewhere. That support need not be an eyewitness or a forensic finding — a contemporaneous message, an early disclosure, an injury, or the accused’s own account can supply it. Small details recorded at the first interview therefore matter later, and digital material should be preserved.

The decision whether to prosecute

When the investigation is complete the public prosecutor decides. The case may go to trial, be disposed of out of court, or be discontinued — a sepot — because the evidence is thought insufficient to convict or on policy grounds. A complainant is entitled to be told the decision and its reasons, and may ask to discuss it with the prosecutor.

That is not the last word. Under art. 12 Sv a person with a direct interest, including a complainant, may complain to the court of appeal for the region where the case was handled. Where a suspect has been identified and formally notified of the discontinuance, the complaint must be lodged within three months; otherwise no fixed period runs, though delay is still unwise.

The court examines the file, hears the advocate general, and may hold a hearing behind closed doors. It decides not guilt but only whether a prosecution should take place. If the complaint succeeds it orders prosecution or further investigation; if it fails, the decision stands.

The position of the accused

Someone reported for a sexual offence will normally be invited or arrested for interview. Before it there is a right to consult a lawyer and to have one present during questioning, a right to silence, a right to be told the suspicion, and a right to an interpreter. In police custody a lawyer is assigned automatically; a lawyer of one’s own choosing may be instructed instead, and legal aid is available.

These are offences for which pre-trial detention is available. Police custody (inverzekeringstelling) may last three days and be extended once by three; an investigating judge may then order remand (bewaring) for up to fourteen days; and the court may order continued detention (gevangenhouding) for up to ninety days — up to 110 days in all before the case must come to court. Detention can be suspended on conditions and challenged at each stage.

There is a further reality the law does not regulate. An allegation of this kind can affect employment, professional registration, residence applications, family arrangements and reputation long before a court hears any evidence, and sometimes even where the case is later discontinued or ends in acquittal. Anyone in this position should take advice early, observe any conditions imposed, and not contact the complainant or discuss the allegation with witnesses; doing so damages their position and can itself be an offence.

The complainant at the hearing

A complainant is not a party to the criminal case; the prosecution is brought by the state. They do have defined rights: to inspect the file, add documents, be accompanied, and be informed of progress and outcome.

Under art. 51e Sv there is a right to speak (spreekrecht) at the hearing in cases concerning serious offences, including those discussed here. It belongs to the victim and, in defined circumstances, to relatives and a child’s legal representatives. It may be exercised in person, in writing through a victim statement, or by an authorised representative such as a lawyer or a Slachtofferhulp Nederland caseworker. The statement is addressed to the court rather than to the accused.

Compensation can be claimed within the criminal case by joining as an injured party under art. 51f Sv, covering financial loss such as treatment costs and lost income, and non-material harm. The claim must not place a disproportionate burden on the proceedings; a complex one may be left in part to the civil courts. Where compensation is awarded the court usually also imposes a compensation measure, under which the state collects the sum from the convicted person. Separately, the Schadefonds Geweldsmisdrijven can pay victims of serious violent and sexual offences, with no conviction required.

Limitation periods in outline

Under art. 70 Sr the right to prosecute lapses after six, twelve or twenty years, depending on the maximum sentence. For the serious sexual offences committed against a minor it does not lapse at all: sexual acts with children remain prosecutable without limit of time. Where the victim was an adult, a limitation period of twelve to twenty years applies, depending on the maximum sentence carried by the offence. Under art. 71 Sr, where a period does apply to a sexual offence against a child, it runs from the day the victim turns eighteen rather than from the date of the offence.

Historic offences against children can therefore still be prosecuted decades later, while for an adult complainant the position depends on the offence charged and the law in force at the time, so it should be checked rather than assumed. Child pornography stays where it was, in art. 240b Sr, with a limitation period that follows the maximum sentence for the offence.

Where support is available

• Centrum Seksueel Geweld — medical care, forensic examination and psychological support, day and night, on 0800-0188.
• Slachtofferhulp Nederland — free practical, emotional and legal support for victims and relatives, including the right to speak and compensation claims.
• A victim’s lawyer — in serious cases a specialist lawyer can be assigned to the complainant, often at no cost, to advise on reporting, file access, the right to speak and the claim.
• A defence lawyer — for anyone questioned as a suspect, from the first interview onwards, with legal aid subject to means.
• The general practitioner and Veilig Thuis — for medical care and for domestic or dependency situations.

Law & More acts for complainants and for accused persons in Eindhoven, Amsterdam and elsewhere in the Netherlands, and advises in English. Because the Act applies only to conduct after 1 July 2024, the date of the events is among the first things to establish.