The players from the women’s handball club TuS Metzingen said they discovered two hidden cameras in their locker room. Despite this shocking discovery, the team will continue with the season.
“We have discussed this incident intensively with the team and I am very impressed that our players have stuck together so strongly and decided to play the game against Bietigheim [on Wednesday] together,” said manager Ferenc Rott.
The suspect was someone close to the team. The manager and players were astonished and said that “[they] condemn this reprehensible behavior in the strongest possible terms.” Andreas Thiel, the Chairman of Handball Bundesliga Frauen (HBF), said, “Such a criminal act contradicts all the values that we as the HBF represent together with our clubs.”
Their position has been terminated and the team will not release the suspect’s name or role to the team. Police said to a local paper that they found evidence and that the suspect may face up to 2 years in jail for violation of personal rights.
“Women’s handball stands together and resolutely defends itself against all those who threaten us and our sport. Our solidarity is greater than any rivalry, any game, any goal!” the team said.
This occurrence is not the first and certainly not the last case of women’s invasion of privacy in sports. Last September in the same league, the HL Buchholz 08-Rosengarten found 3 hidden cameras before the game against SG BBM Bietigheim. The Buchholz 08-Rosengarten investigation is still ongoing.
Another similar case happened in South Carolina where cameras were found in Louisville Bellarmine University’s locker room. The cameras were hidden in the soap dispensers in the locker room. This video was taken in the early 2010s and uploaded to an adult website. A total of five videos were taken, and police are still unsure of the suspect. However, since then the site has taken down the videos.
A more local case of this happening in other extracurricular activities occurred at St. Thomas Aquinas in early October. The choir teacher placed secret cameras to videotape students in his classroom, where students would sometimes change. The teacher was immediately put on administrative leave and was charged with two accounts of sexual exploitation of a child and two accounts of breach of privacy.
As shown by these examples, hidden cameras in private rooms is not a new issue and most likely will continue being one. Keeping a safe environment is difficult because, demonstrated by the women’s handball incident, someone trusted can violate those rights. One way to counteract this is to have locker room camera sweeps. While people should not have to worry about secret recordings, this may be a way to prevent future occurrences
