Two police officers are facing 2.5 years in jail for sexually abusing a woman in the back of their police car.

The public prosecution department says the duo, named as Sander L and Bidjaykoemar D, also falsified records to provide themselves with a fake alibi.

The suspects told the court in Zwolle on Thursday they had simply taken the woman to her grandmother’s house for her own safety because she was drunk.

The incident happened in February 2012 during the Carnaval celebrations.

The woman told two friends she had been abused by the police officers before they brought her home.

Sperm from officer D was found on the back seat of the car. He first claimed to have had sex in the car with his wife but later changed his story to say he had been unfaithful.

Police car tracking equipment also showed the officers had lied, the public prosecutor says.