The Metz prosecutor's office requested Tuesday, October 19, two years in prison against a former doctor prosecuted for sexual assault on 17 young recruits of the national police between 2016 and 2018 during medical visits in the Grand Est.
Christian Frey, 65, had already been sentenced in 2019 in Reims to a one-year suspended sentence and a definitive ban on practicing for having sexually assaulted nine students of a police academy, seven women and two men, for facts dating back to June 2018. He was tried this time in Metz for similar facts which took place in Reims, Strasbourg, Metz or Mulhouse.
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“We have demonstrated the reality of the facts, of what these young women and men suffered. We hope that the court's decision will be favorable to the civil parties, ”
greeted Mr. Bruno Zillig, lawyer for four of the plaintiffs, at the end of the hearing. The plaintiffs, at the time young police recruits, accuse the doctor of having touched their breasts or testicles in an
"insistent" way
and without warning them, during compulsory medical examinations to determine their physical aptitude to join
the police
forces. order. During the hearing, President Marie-José Miceli repeatedly questioned the defendant on the need for these palpations. Christian Frey has always defended himself from any sexual assault,arguing that these examinations were intended to detect possible cancers.
"Old pervert"
In the depositions of the plaintiffs to the investigators read by the magistrate, however, all described the same process: the women recounted having had to spend the entire medical examination topless, and described
“intrusive”
breast palpations
.
“I had the feeling that he was palpating me to touch me, I just wanted it to stop,”
one of them said.
"He was old pervert,"
said another in court.
The three men said they were
"surprised and embarrassed"
testicular palpations, describing an
"unpleasant"
atmosphere
during medical visits.
The civil parties have also expressed their
"fear"
to have their medical examinations invalidated if they object to the doctor's actions.
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Christian Frey assured to have requested their consents, warning them that he was going to carry out
"a complete examination"
.
"A medical act, even without consent, remains a medical act"
, added one of his lawyers, Me Yves-Marie Moray, pleading the release of his client.
The judgment was reserved for November 23.
