A 68-year-old woman from Oldenzaal has committed suicide after security camera footage showing her taking another pensioner’s purse was broadcast on a local crime fighter show.

The woman was clearly recognisable in the clip, broadcast on tv station RTV Oost. The justice ministry has defended the broadcast, even though it was a ‘simple theft’. ‘We would do the same thing again,’ a spokeswoman told the Volkskrant.

The theft happened in a Xenos shop in Oldenzaal. The footage shows how an older women left her purse after paying for her shopping. Once she has left, the 68-year-old woman looks around her and then pockets the purse.

After the broadcast, the thief reported to the police, who took the video offline. It had, however, already been uploaded to shock blog Dumpert, where it was seen tens of thousands of times and led to a volley of hate messages directed at the woman.

Utrecht university professor Judith van Erp, who has researched the effect of tv crime shows, says broadcasting the footage was out of proportion to the crime.

Photograph

CCTV footage can be broadcast in an effort to catch a criminal, as long as the offence could lead to the perpetrator being remanded in custody. ‘But this is the case with almost every crime,’ Van Erp pointed out.

The police say they first tried to identify the woman by showing her photograph to shop staff but no-one recognised her. ‘We would have asked around the neighbourhood but you have to ask if that would have been efficient,’ a spokesman told the Volkskrant.

Public prosecutor Ernst Pols told the paper some 40% of crimes are solved after footage is broadcast.