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The call for witnesses, a tool to strengthen the voice of victims of sexual violence

2020-02-11T18:07:19.264Z


More frequently used in abduction cases, the call to witness is a relevant tool for investigators in charge of sexual violence files.


The words are weighed in trebuchet and Gabriel Matzneff is never named, but it's just like. The Paris prosecution launched Tuesday afternoon a call for witnesses to find victims of " sexual acts " likely to concern the investigation for " rape by a person having authority " opened on January 3 following the publication of the book The Consent of Vanessa Springora. The narrative, which recounts the grip of the writer in his fifties on the 14-year-old girl she was in the early 1980s, opened what has since been referred to as the "Matzneff affair".

Read also: Vanessa Springora, V as a victim

" Whatever the delay, whatever the circumstances or the people who could be implicated, the police encourage all those who have information to testify, " announces the text with a number attached. telephone (06 83 67 43 57).

The approach is not a first. The national police had thus published in September 2019 a call for witnesses in the Epstein case, a month after the death of this American businessman at the heart of an international prostitution and child trafficking scandal. At the Paris prosecutor's office, however, it is difficult to remember another case of sexual violence in which this device was more often associated with kidnapping cases. The call for witnesses could however prove to be crucial in cases of sexual violence, where victims frequently hesitate to file a complaint, or come forward after the limitation period, as is the case with Vanessa Springora.

" Very often the victims think that nobody is going to believe them, for lack of evidence, " explains Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, lawyer specializing in the defense of victims of sexual violence. " Calling witnesses can help locate other victims, which will strengthen the case, and help convince judges of the guilt of the alleged perpetrator. "

Maître Durrieu-Diebolt particularly remembers a client who was attacked by a casting director, but whose complaint had been dismissed. " A year later another woman filed a complaint against the man, and the police made the connection. In the end, the attacker was convicted of assaulting four different women. "

Presumption of innocence

Another example: “ I had the case of a man convicted of marital rape after six of his former companions declared that they had been victims of such assaults, as civil parties or as witnesses when the facts were prescribed. They had no interest in doing so, but their testimony helped to give credence to the charges, and to have the perpetrator convicted . ”

In these two cases, specifies however the lawyer, it is the quality of the investigation carried out by the police which made it possible to find other victims. Part of " chance " for the civil parties, who have little means other than media coverage of cases to find other witnesses and strengthen their case.

Since the presumption of innocence prohibits the launching of calls to personal witnesses, the practice remains a delicate exercise for the prosecution in cases of sexual violence. Associations such as the Collective Feminist Against Rape (CFCV) have been using it for years, however, to find the victims of the same person, using descriptions that are sufficiently vague to remain legal. Under the heading "calls to witnesses", one thus finds on its site calls for testimonies about " sexual assault or rape by a masseur-acupressor in 93 ", or " sexual assault or rape by sports instructor nautical in the Bouches-du-Rhône ”. Eight ads of this type have been online since November 2019.

" When we opened our telephone line for victims of sexual violence [0 800 05 95 95] , we quickly realized that rapists are almost never unique, " says Emmanuelle Piet, president of CFCV since 1992 and member of the High Council for Equality between Women and Men. We therefore suggest that some victims put an advertisement online to find people who match, and possibly put them in contact. When a woman is alone, it's not the same as when five people who don't know each other say the same thing. "

Read also: Vanessa Springora's book, "important step" in the face of pedophilia

Over ten years ago, this method found several victims of sexologist Gilbert Tordjman, who died in 2009 before he could be tried. Today, Emmanuelle Piet wants the prosecution to use calls to witnesses more frequently in cases of sexual violence.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2020-02-11

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