They await this trial as much as they fear it. The victims of the rapes and attacks attributed to Dino Scala, this 58-year-old man arrested on February 26, 2018, better known by his nickname "rapist of the Sambre", see the outcome of their long fight looming.
On February 14, the public prosecutor of Avesnes-sur-Helpe (North) made his closing statement in this extraordinary case. He claims the indictment of this mechanic for the rape or sexual assault of 52 women, some of whom were minors at the time of the facts, for acts committed between 1988 and 2018. It is now up to the investigating judge to decide before a trial which could take place before the Assize Court in 2021.
"He rotted my youth"
The vast majority of the alleged victims remain traumatized by the acts attributed to this father, suspected of having acted almost exclusively in the early morning, on his professional journey between his home in Pont-sur-Sambre and his workplace in Jeumont.
"It rotted my youth," said a woman who was the victim of an attempted rape in 1993, when she was only 17 years old. Dino Scala, who recognized this attack, is suspected of having wrapped his neck with a cord. Before the expert psychologist, she spoke of this attack "as an encounter with the real world of death".
Another woman who was the victim of an attempted sexual assault in Maubeuge in 1997 said that, more than a sexual assault, she believed that she had been attempted murder.
A woman's life "screwed up"
These attacks attributed to Dino Scala have left immeasurable consequences. A woman who was raped in 1991 told the investigating judge that this attack "ruined [her] life as a woman". “In front of the expert, X related that this attack had irreparably changed the course of his life and had effects on his social relationships, his body image and his femininity. She mentioned in particular passages to the suicidal act ", notes the indictment.
The consequences were also considerable for the youngest alleged victim, raped in 1996 on the way to college. She was then only 13 years old. "A trauma [which has] affected his intimate and social life for the long term" and "a relationship with the world [...] marked by anxiety and hypervigilance", develops psychological expertise.
The alleged victims of this father, a priori above all suspicion, experience the consequences of what they suffered on a daily basis. Victim of an attempted rape in 1993, Sandrine (the first name was changed), aged 15 at the time, says she has lived in terror ever since and always carry a tear gas canister on her. She can only go out when accompanied. Like other victims, she tended to overprotect her children.
"The arrest did them both good and bad"
Some women are still on medical treatment, others have developed skin diseases, sleep or mood disorders. Even among those who have been most successful in overcoming this traumatic experience, there is still a trace.
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"When you are the victim of acts of this nature, your whole life is shaken," says Ms. Christine Wibaut, a lawyer from Avesnes-sur-Helpe (North), who assists numerous civil parties. The suspect's arrest did them both good and bad. Good because they told themselves that he would no longer commit another attack, but also bad because some had managed to bury this painful past. "
An experienced lawyer, Me Wibaut remembers the first meeting of victims organized by the investigating judge after the arrest of Dino Scala: “I had never felt so much pain. Invisible wounds cannot be seen and it is sometimes difficult to grasp them. But we must never forget that their foundations have been reached. "
Four alleged victims removed by the prosecution
Since October 10, 2019 and his last interrogation, Dino Scala is suspected of having attacked 56 women (including 16 raped) between 1988 and 2018. However, the prosecution requested a dismissal for four of them, because of “ points of discrepancy with the elements systematically noted in the facts alleged against Dino Scala ”. This industrial maintenance professional is suspected of having developed a very specific operating method: act early in the morning and winter to take advantage of short days, assault victims from behind, practice strangulation, use a knife, wear beatings in the event of resistance or else intimate the order for its victims to be silent.
For three of the victims he dismisses, the prosecution puts forward the time of the events, around 8 p.m. In another case, the prosecution notes that the reported assault was committed in August, "in contradiction to the rest of the alleged assaults". These temporal considerations are added to other details provided by the complainants and which would not fit Dino Scala, such as the wearing of a mustache or the fact that the aggressor knows the first name of a victim.
Me Caty Richard, the lawyer of two of these four women, opposes the requisitions of the prosecution. "The assaults suffered by my clients reveal many similarities to other facts," insists the penalist. Regarding the time, even if many assaults took place during a specific time slot, there is nothing to exclude that he could have acted at another time. "Since the investigation of Dino Scala for the violence suffered by my clients, the investigation has brought nothing new," added the lawyer. I therefore hope that the investigating judge will maintain her position. If she believed that there were not sufficient charges against the accused for these facts, it would be to deny what they had experienced, and we would raise appeal. "
The number of victims attributed to the “rapist of the Sambre” is a crucial issue in the investigation. “Dino Scala recognizes certain facts. There are others which he does not remember, but which he admits they correspond to his mode of operation. On the other hand, there are others that he fiercely contests, specifies his lawyer Me Margaux Mathieu. The four cases dismissed by the prosecution are among them, but they are not the only ones. "