Hauts-de-Seine: a police writer sentenced to six months suspended for breach of professional secrecy

2023-05-15 23:12:08

Agnès Naudin, a police writer, was sentenced on Monday by the Nanterre criminal court to a six-month suspended prison sentence and a three-year ban on practicing as a police officer, for having violated professional secrecy by publishing, in 2018, a book evoking ongoing investigations. In her book “Family Affairs”, the spokesperson for the FSU Interior union, who was then an investigator for the territorial brigade for the protection of the Hauts-de-Seine family, mentioned three ongoing cases.

During the hearing on March 13, the 39-year-old policewoman, who has written several books, explained that she had asked for the agreement of those involved, changing the names and places of commission of the facts. “I would never have allowed myself” to publish otherwise, she had assured. His superiors had been informed of the publication of this book, his lawyer pleaded.

Entire passages of minutes

More reports Liberation, the police captain had kept nicknames, investigation schedules and entire passages from the reports of hearings of victims and respondents. “Too many details relating to the identity, the environment of the parties, the facts themselves, as well as the exact reproduction of terms and content appearing in the hearings (…) made it possible to identify the parties in question”, had estimated the magistrates of Nanterre to justify their decision, according to Release.

“The anonymization is therefore insufficient to preserve the secrecy of the said information, which was revealed by the publication of the book,” they added. Agnès Naudin told the daily that she appealed the judgment.

The public prosecutor’s office had requested that he be permanently banned from exercising the profession of police officer and three months’ suspended imprisonment. “Ms. Naudin does not seem to have understood the interest of professional secrecy (…). If we put Ms. Naudin back in service, she can still write on current cases, ”said the prosecutor. Agnès Naudin did not wish to speak on Monday after the deliberation.