Harington was arrested by police and interrogated by the Central Intelligence Organization. At her trial before the Zimbabwe High Court in November 1987 Odile testified that she had been tortured before February 1987 at a place called Daventry House, while she was being held at Mabelreign police station in Harare, and after May 1987 at the CIO detention centre in Goromonzi. She described repeated sexual assaults, severe beatings, burnings with cigarettes and other humiliating treatment. She claimed that an ANC official and her superior had taken part in her torture. According to her testimony, the ANC official beat her on the soles of the feet with a hosepipe and half-drowned her by ducking her head repeatedly in a container of water. This evidence was not challenged in court. Chief Justice Dumbutshena cited her torture in mitigation when he reduced her sentence on appeal.
Odile was sentenced to 25 years in jail on 27 November 1987. On 3 December 1987, the South Africa Commissioner of Police said that Odile was not a spy and had not received any training or compensation.[2]