‘Criminal behaviour’: UK police officer jailed for stealing woman’s underwear during home search; ‘why did he want them’ asks victim

An on-duty officer who was caught on camera stealing a woman’s underwear during a home search in September last year has been jailed.The officer, identified as Marcin Zielinski, 47, serving with Hertfordshire Police, conducted the Section 32 search.CCTV footage from the woman’s home from last year shows Zielinski slipping a pair of underwear into his back pocket before walking out of the room. The woman released the footage on Monday after the officer was sentenced to four months in prison for the corrupt and improper use of police power and privileges. "Zielinski has let down the public of Hertfordshire, the police service as a whole, and his former colleagues, who act with professionalism and integrity,” Genna Telfer, the assistant chief constable of Hertfordshire Constabulary, was quoted as saying by the BBC. "His criminal behaviour damages the reputation of policing and represents a fundamental betrayal of the public and the values for which the police service stands," she said. The woman said she felt so “violated” by the incident that she discarded all her underwear and the chest of drawers, which had become a constant reminder of the distressing footage.“I'm constantly thinking, what did he want them for? Why did he take them? What's he going to do with them? How many more people has he done it to?” the woman was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.

On the night of the incident, the woman was arrested over an unrelated matter but later released without charges. While she was in custody, her partner came across the ring doorbell footage and was shocked by what he witnessed. "On the footage he signals to the other guy, 'I've searched this room, go and search the other room’. So he sent the other officer out and that's when he proceeded to open the drawer and stick them in his back pocket," the woman’s partner was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail. The woman feels that Zielinski’s sentence was too lenient and that he should serve a longer term in jail. "Originally I thought it was just going to get a suspended sentence, because I really did not think they were going to take it seriously. But I do think he does deserve to see the law from the other side. He can't just have the power trip to get away with it," she said.