A police officer who called a woman who filed a sexual assault complaint a “whore” in a voice message he left her by mistake was acquitted Thursday by the Paris police court, angering the victim.
“The president of the police court considered that the fact, for a police officer, to say to a sexually assaulted woman “fat whore”, was not a sexist insult
,” the lawyer for the plaintiff, Maître Arié Alimi.
“The judicial institution continues to protect the police. My client wishes to appeal to change judicial customs
,” he continued.
The facts date back to February 2022: the victim had filed a first complaint in a Parisian police station for
“sexual assault while drunk”
.
A judicial police officer then left her a message on her answering machine for her to complete her complaint.
Thinking he had hung up, we heard him complaining about the situation then, after a silence of a few seconds, adding:
“She really is a whore.
(...) Damn, she refuses to confront the whore.
As if by chance.
Actually it was just to break his balls, I'm sure.
(...) Fuck, you big whore
,” before hanging up the receiver correctly.
“Crushed”
Were these insults uttered to his colleagues, which would have constituted a
“non-public insult on grounds of sex”
, or to himself,
“like when one gets angry at a cyclist in a car”
, what was the policeman arguing?
During the hearing at the beginning of December, the prosecution invited the court to answer this question
“in its soul and conscience”
.
He had suggested that, in the first case, the police officer should be convicted but exempted from punishment, given his exemplary career, and that in the second case he should be acquitted.
The young woman then did not hide her disappointment, saying she felt
“crushed”
.
This case had sparked numerous criticisms of the treatment by the police of victims of sexual violence.
The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, initially considered that the police officer
“no longer had his place”
in the police force.
“I had to beg the minister not to dismiss me
,” the respondent explained to the court.
Suspended for more than four months, the police officer was finally sanctioned with a professional transfer, then in June 2023 with a ban on contact with the victims and those accused.
At the hearing, he denied being
“sexist or misogynist”
and said he was
“really sorry that the victim heard these unfortunate comments”
.