Ten French men have been acquitted and four have received short sentences over the gang-rape of teenage girls in a trial described by one of the victims’ lawyers as a “judicial shipwreck”.
In a case that has shocked France and cast a light on a culture of youth sexual violence, two women now in their 20s said that as teenagers they had endured months of almost daily gang-rapes by scores of men in Fontenay-sous-Bois, outside Paris. The case is seen as the tip of the iceberg of the wider problem of gang rapes on poor estates.
After a four-week trial, four of the accused were found guilty of taking part in gang rapes but 10 were acquitted. Those found guilty were handed sentences that ranged from three years’ suspended sentence to one year in prison. Because of time already served on remand, only one man returned to prison after the verdict.
The sentences were far lighter than those recommended by the state prosecutor. The court found one of the women, identified as Nina, was raped, but did not uphold rape allegations against the second, identified as Stephanie.
Clotilde Lepetit, one of the women’s lawyers, described the sentencing as “a judicial shipwreck” for the women. She denounced what she called the extremely poor handling of the investigation and the judicial failings of the trial.
– (Guardian service)