This case broke out in December 2021, when the accused was still working in the IT department of the hospital establishment. An employee then noticed that someone was taking advantage of her lunch break to take control of her computer. She then informed management, confirms general manager Hans Rigauts to The Latest News. “In the following days, we called a specialist IT company and found that the computers were indeed hacked.“, explains Hans Rigauts. “We have also informed our employees and asked them to change their passwords.“
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950 potential victims
The investigation quickly traced the source of this computer hacking and a complaint against the 42-year-old man, originally from Zedelgem, was filed with the police. The suspect was of course immediately dismissed from his position.
As investigators dug, they were able to identify dozens of other victims. According to the public prosecutor, there could be up to 950 potential victims, because in theory, the computer scientist had been able to get hold of all the passwords of hospital employees. Although the accused was only interested in female employees, he was also able to take other personal photos.
The lawyer for one of the victims even explains that after the birth of his son, the accused attacked the computers of the midwives who took care of the birth.
The defendant denies all counts. His lawyer, Bart Bleyaert, declared this morning to HLN : “We will argue the matter in court and I will not make any prior statement on the merits“, before adding: “What I can say is that my client disputes that he is responsible for these facts. On what basis? We will provide all explanations on this subject during the hearing.“
