“Voyeurism by person abusing authority” and “invasion of privacy”.
These are the legal qualifications under which Patrick T., Parisian lawyer in labor law, appeared this Thursday before room 10-2 of the Paris Criminal Court.
More specifically, the 50-year-old was suspected of having used his mobile phone to film under the skirts of three young women: two collaborators, Alice P. in March 2014 and Élodie P. in August 2014, and an intern, Rym K., in August 2019.
Read also: In the Paris court, the trial of the lawyer tried for voyeurism "shatters"
Patrick T. has always disputed the facts.
During the first part of his trial, on January 8, he reiterated his denials against the three young women, who had filed a civil suit.
This Thursday, July 1, he remained on the same line of defense.
This did not prevent the public prosecutor from requesting a one-year suspended prison sentence against him, with obligation of care and compensation for the civil parties.
At the end of the defense, the court should reserve its judgment.
The defendant faces two years in prison and a 30,000 euros fine.
In January, the court heard the plaintiffs one by one.
All described a meeting in the office of Patrick T., who allegedly asked them to go behind his desk to type an Internet search on his computer.
"I saw him with his arms stretched out between my legs, with his phone facing the ceiling"
, had described Rym K.
"I dispute the facts in the strongest possible way.
I'm mad.
In this case, obviously, I am totally innocent,
”replied the defendant.
Read also: A Parisian magistrate indicted for pimping
Several current or former collaborators of Patrick T. then paraded to the bar to attest
"never to have noticed any inappropriate gesture"
in the accused.
Then the hearing had been swallowed up by very technical questions relating to possible files erased by the lawyer.
After eight hours of hearing, the court had postponed the proceedings to the month of July, so that more information is carried out on the question of the possible deletion of photos or videos.
"He broke the careers of these young women"
As in January, a large part of the hearing this Thursday was devoted to technical questions revolving around the cell phones of the accused - one of which he said
"fell into the water"
during the summer of 2014. The president urged the experts to keep their interventions as simple as possible and elicited laughter when he asked the first expert, who was launching into complex explanations, to
"take into account that we can barely make it work. the remote control of our Freebox ”
.
It was not until the fifth hour of the hearing for the civil party lawyers to begin their pleadings.
Me Joseph Hazan spoke first
“because it was [his client Rym K.] who started the proceedings”
.
The young woman
“is part of this new world where people come to denounce facts.
And that brings in its wake people from a time when perhaps we denounced the facts less and where we resigned, ”
said the lawyer, referring to the other two plaintiffs.
Read also: In Aix-en-Provence, magistrates and lawyers at war
“When Élodie P. denounced the facts in 2014, we believed her but we did not want to make waves. We left Élodie P. and Alice P. a little alone in the pampas ”
, continued Me Marie-Hélène Fabiani, advising Élodie P.
“ It wasn't until 2019, when Rym K. had the courage to denounce the facts, that we finally took things seriously and that we looked into the cases of Élodie P. and Alice P. ”
Me Diane Protat, Alice P.'s lawyer, concluded
:
"
When [Patrick T.] took these photos, he shattered the careers of these young women
".
Denouncing
“unworthy acts”
, the prosecutor refused to
“ignore the psychological shock experienced by these young women”
. Qualifying the statements of the latter as
"precise, constant and reiterated"
, the magistrate denounced the existence of "a
real modus operandi
". Before claiming a one-year suspended prison sentence against Patrick T., who according to her
"obviously arrogated to himself the right to capture, without the knowledge of the persons concerned, images that he had to consider pleasant to watch ".