Ile-de-France: five years in prison for the rapist baker from eastern Paris

After deliberations that lasted nearly six hours, Abdellah O., nicknamed the "predatory baker of eastern Paris", was found guilty on Friday evening of rape, attempted rape and assault sexual.

He was sentenced to five years in prison, including one year suspended.

This 35-year-old Moroccan was also banned from entering French territory for ten years.

A sentence in accordance with the requisitions of the Advocate General, who had requested five years' imprisonment.

Abdellah O. was tried this week before the assizes in Paris for two rapes and two attempts, between May 2012 and June 2013, within a perimeter of one kilometer around the Ménilmontant station in Paris (20th century).

D With a similar modus operandi, the man attacked dark-haired women, alone, in skirts, shortly before dawn.

Facts that the then baker denied at the hearing, as he had done consistently during the investigation.

"My client is very affected and disappointed"

Abdellah was therefore acquitted of the rape of a young woman, Laureline

(the first name has been changed)

, for lack of "decisive evidence", according to the reasons read at the hearing by the president of the Assize Court.

When the verdict was announced, Laureline hurriedly left the room.

"My client is very marked and disappointed, because her victim status has not been recognized", explained Me Serge Money, the young woman's lawyer.

“Nevertheless, the sentence is in line with what the prosecution required for four assaults.

The jurors therefore let my client know that they had not forgotten her.

In this, she is appeased, ”added the lawyer.

Another source of disappointment for the civil parties: the attempted rape of Geraldine Jeffroy was reclassified as sexual assault.

The jurors indeed considered that, during his passage to the act, Abdellah O. had not gone far enough, in his gestures, to prove the will to rape.

"I should have struggled less"

"I have the feeling that for the jurors, who were mainly men, I would have had to struggle less for the attempted rape to be established", laments Geraldine Jeffroy, in a message sent to the Parisian in the evening.

"I am proud of my reaction, and at the same time, faced with this verdict, I almost blame myself for having fought to the end," she squeaks.

Abdellah O. has been convicted of the rape of Juliette, 35 years old.

A "relief," she breathed as she left the room.

But the thirty-something was very shaken by the acquittal and the requalification.

“I see, once again, a minimization of violence against women.

It is therefore impossible for me to feel safe in the street.

"

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The civil parties did not hide their bitterness to see their attacker, who attacked four women, sentenced to four years, while rape is punished by fifteen years of imprisonment.

"This sentence shows that we once again had more compassion for the aggressor than for the victims," ​​denounced Me Cécile Pudebat, lawyer for Geraldine Jeffroy.

A lack of recognition

Juliette's lawyer, Me Pauline Rongier, regrets that the Advocate General only required five years' imprisonment, for two rapes and two attempts.

“The fact that it was digital rape must have played a role.

As if it were less serious!

Yet the Penal Code does not make a distinction.

The rape of my client was however brutal: she was injured by the nails of her attacker on 3 centimeters.

"

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Abdellah O., short brown hair and a small gray sweater with white stripes, remained impassive when reading the verdict.

“It took me a long time to explain to my client that he wouldn't be spending fifteen years behind bars.

He expected a much heavier sentence, ”said Me Romuald Sayagh, the defense lawyer.

Unsurprisingly, the lawyer indicated that he did not intend to appeal this "balanced and humane decision".

“The jurors clearly understood who my client was.

Far from the cliché of the predator, he was a lost man, propelled from a village in the depths of the Atlas to Paris, ”he added.

An opinion that Me Pauline Rongier does not share: "The hearing did not make it possible to understand who Abdellah O really is. We still do not know the reasons for his passage to the act, and we therefore do not know whether there is a risk of recurrence.

"

After two years in pre-trial detention, Abdellah O., now married and father of two children in Spain, has already served half of his sentence.

He should therefore soon be able to apply for parole.