Original title
De Ridder
Released
10/13/2013
Origin country
BE
Genre
Crime, Drama
Production companies
Eyeworks
Status
Ended
Number of seasons
4
Number of episodes
47
De Ridder is a Flemish crime series that is broadcasted by the network één since 2013. The series is set in the court of Ghent where Helena De Ridder, played by Clara Cleymans, is a public prosecutor.
Helena De Ridder is a lawyer at Ravenakkers & Partners. When the well-known former footballer Paul Vandenbon is accused of pedophilia, Helena is put on the case. Helena throws herself into the matter, but the confrontation with the alleged victim brings her to doubt.
Helena is going to work for the public prosecutor's office. There she investigates the death of a toddler after an unfortunate fall of a staircase. Helena is immediately noticeable when, on the basis of an anonymous tip, she stops the child's funeral and so scares the parents.
Four women are found dead in a caravan. Research shows that they have contracted CO poisoning. The women appear to be part of an Eastern European group of women who have to clean toilets along the roadside restaurants of the company Lunchline for a hunger wage. With the help of the sister of one of the murdered women, the public prosecutor tracks down the driver of the group of traffickers. There appears to be a whole tangle of businesses and intermediaries attached to human trafficking. In the end Lunchline will be taken to court and compensation will be paid to the victims.
There is a bomb alert in the harbor at the big and powerful firm OT&C. They see Rudi Kassel running away and arrest him. It turns out he wanted revenge on the firm, because he got cancer from working with illegal radio-active transports he took part off. He says the firm knew about it and was OK with. Helena wants to investigate OT&C on the illegal transports, but gets a lot of resistance.
The police catch two Roma children breaking in and can arrest the girl. They let her go and follow her. When she goes to her mother, they arrest her and her son too. The children are too young to charge them. Because of language barriers and cultural differences, it's hard to get the parents take responsibilities for their children. Helena is still blamed for the leak on the investigation of OT&C, but they can't prove anything. Manu confesses to her he accidentally mailed the information to a journalist. Helena doesn't want him to tell the Attorney-General, because it...
Martijn Kramer, an employee of a brewery, jumped of a silo after a party at work. Although the head and confidential advisor said Martijn was a loner and difficult at work, it soon becomes clear he was bullied. They find terrible pictures of the party, but is it enough to get a conviction? In the mean time Helena finds a letter on her desk informing her of an old case which puts Christine and Thomas in bad daylight. She decides to ask Christine about it.
At night there is a scuffle at a pub and the police are called. Tony and Frank try to break up the fight. Tony gets stabbed with a broken bottle by Julien, a homeless person. Julien who has tuberculosis also coughs a lot in Tony's face and now he also has it. Ravenakkers is Julien's lawyer and gets Julien off easily. The next day Julien is found beaten up badly and accuses inspectors Frank and Tony, but did they really do it? Thomas gives Helena evidence against OT&C, but he doesn't want to reveal the sailor's name who gave him the information. When a letter about ...
Mark, a gay man, is badly beaten up in a dark alley and lands in hospital. He says he was attacked from behind and doesn't know who they were. His husband Gerrit, a prominent and very active leader of the gay-movement, wants to take action, but Mark doesn't want to press charges. The wife of Faruk, the Turkish grocer who found Mark, says Faruk was also attacked, because his shirt was torn and full of blood. This contradicts Faruk's earlier statement. Mark says he doesn't know Faruk, but the police find out he called him several times. Faruk keeps changing his story ...
Cara Heijne is the deadly victim of a hit and run. When they investigate the scene, the driver Jasper De Schryver suddenly turns up. He knows it was wrong to drive on, but he panicked. He declares, despite him driving a bit too fast, Cara suddenly was in front of his car and he couldn't avoid her. Helena finds out Cara had been to a party and was very drunk. She already fell from her bike once when she decided to go home. Helena thinks Cara and Jasper share the blame, but what will the judge say and how will Cara's parents react? Yves finds it difficult to accept ...
The case OT&C goes to court. Helena wants to know the name of the sailor who was a witness to the illegal radio-active transports, but Thomas doesn't want to say. Because she doesn't have the name, she doesn't make a chance in court. Thomas sees she can't do anything this way and finally gives her the name. Julie Kassel doesn't believe in Helena anymore. Nicole Claus is threatened, because she is the lawyer of OT&C. There is a big conflict between Christine and Yves.
Veerle De Pannemaeker is being stalked by journalist Henk Courteyn. He doesn't think it's stalking. When Veerle has good news, she invites him in, but when there is bad news, his paper also wants to print it. Veerle hardly comes out of the house anymore since Henk makes her life a misery. Helena wants to pursue Henk's paper. Now Chrisine is gone, Yves takes over for the time being. Helena discovers the papers chief-editor Smets knows Ravenakkers. Yves doesn't want to pursue any longer, because he thinks Veerle should be used to journalists. Helena can't go against him...
When Thomas is falsely accused of rape, Helena continues to defend him. In the meantime, she tries to concentrate on her work. A sadistic pyromaniac set fire to a kennel with live dogs. According to the court psychiatrist, this is the work of a cool psychopath. The worldviews of Helena and the radical old man clash heavily ...
Some suspicious bruises on an elderly woman seem to indicate a trivial accident. Helena dismissed the case, but had to reopen it soon when the woman was admitted to the hospital after a second "accident." Helena 's relationship with Thomas is in the meantime under great pressure when a video pops up proving that Thomas may not be completely innocent ...
A young parcel delivery girl runs into a pushy creditor on a whim. The collection man appears to work for a company that provides loans against usury and does not hesitate to misuse the loopholes in the law. Helena identifies with the powerless young woman and increasingly doubts about the usefulness of her own job in the public prosecutor's office ...
Cleo is back from her world trip. Helena goes back to work with fresh courage, but she finds that Bracke has already provided a replacement. She is forced to help stubborn Stefanie with a tricky surrogate mother's affair. In the meantime, she is stubbornly battling with OT&C. Thomas De Kuyper proposes to re-join forces ...
The endgame against OT&C has been started. While Helena has to answer for the Court of Appeal for assaulting and intimidating a victim, she and Thomas continue the fight against OT&C. The contours of a plot are slowly taking shape. One of the main players is Ravenakkers. But even though the net is slowly starting to close around him, he still has some strong assets behind him ...
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