Pretty lawyers set Belgian jail alarm bells ringing

LONDON - Female lawyers say that guards at a Belgium jail were forcing them to remove their brassiere by pretending that metal wiring and clasps were setting off scanners.

Prison guards at Hasselt jail, however, maintain that the metal detectors were so sensitive that even brassieres sets them beeping, Daily Telegraph reported Friday.

Joseph Rowies, a representative of criminal barristers, pointed out that though female lawyers have no problem with the security paraphernalia, they had noticed that, curiosuly, the prettier the visitor, the more sensitive the scanner became.

“The metal detection checks seem very difficult to carry out when a pretty, young lawyer or visitor reports to the prison gate. And then it becomes a little something to amuse the guards,” Rowies said.

“Time and again they let the metal detector go off. First, the shoes, then the jewellery. And, since the detector still beeps, they demand that the lady in question take off her bra,” he told the Het Nieuwsblad newspaper.

Rowies has told prison officials that he was receiving at least one complaint a month on this.

He said: “It always strikes me that the younger, and the more babe-like a lawyer is, the more difficult the device becomes. I’ve suggested that the prison guards to wear name tags so we can verify if it is always the same officers. But the management has refused for security reasons.”

Laurent Sempot, a spokesperson for Belgium’s directorate-general of prisons, said that claims were “far-fetched”.

“We have recently tested the metal detectors. They functioned perfectly. I’ve visited Hasselt prison several times with female colleagues and none of them was asked to loosen her bra,” he was quoted as saying.

“Those who set off the device cannot enter. Those are the rules.”