"
I thought I had done something wrong
": trembling, at the trial of Dino Scala, a victim said Wednesday, June 15 to have "
always felt guilty
" since his sexual assault in 1991, and not to have been released "
only at the start of the trial
", in contact with the other victims.
Read alsoThe double life of the "rapist of the Sambre", this "good father" with 56 victims
“
For me, I was guilty.
About something I didn't do.
I always wondered, why me?
I said to myself
“
I did something wrong
”
, (...) Was it my clothes?
“, shuddered Sylvie (first name changed), holding back her tears before the Court of Assizes of the North.
“
The guilt was there for a long time, until Friday, the opening of the trial
”.
But after having “
seen the other women (…) I know
”, she continues, turned so as not to see the accused.
“
I am no longer guilty, I am a victim.
»
Nightmares and Trauma
“
I was 19, I was going to high school
,” recalls Sylvie.
Then she staggers, curls up: “
An individual grabbed me from behind, lifted me up
”, “
dragged
” me to a garage, where he “
pressed me against the wall
”.
“
He told me
'
don't move, I have a knife
'
.
Unbuttoning coat and shirt, "
he felt me, fiddled with my chest
."
While fleeing, she says, "
he said to me:
'
I will find you
'".
“
I closed myself off
”: “
I don't go out at night, I don't allow myself cleavage, dresses.
I always keep a scarf.
My husband approaches me, I jump, after 31 years.
My children, I can't take them, kiss them, it blocks me.
She talks about her " violent
" nightmares,
which made her "
bang on the cupboards, bend the bedside lamps
".
"Why did I do this?"
“
I'm the culprit
,” admits Dino Scala.
But on why, “
there is no answer.
She was there
”, “
a beautiful girl that I see passing
”.
"
It could have been someone else
."
“
Can we apologize to this lady?
Will she accept them?
“, tries the accused.
Feverish, Sylvie does not answer.
“
I had already realized the damage.
Today, it's even worse
, ”says Dino Scala, who is appearing for rape and sexual assault on 56 victims.
Then he evokes his own discomfort: afterwards, “
one wonders:
“
why did I do that?
“
We hope it will be over, then it starts again
”.
“
We want to shoot ourselves too.
I thought about it often.
“A little earlier, he had denied the sexual assaults of Véronique and Marianne, attacked the same day in 1988, thirty minutes apart and 1.6 km.
“
I have no memory of an attack at this place
”, he hammered.
"
Two attacks on the same day, it's not possible
", because after each "
there is an awareness
".
Read also“All the investigators broke their teeth there”: the confidences of the commissioner who unmasked the “rapist of the Sambre”
The court also came up against the effect of time.
Of the initial 56 complaints, three were lost.
Others are succinct, reduced to half a page.
Initially, "
you do not speak (i) do not touch
", launched the defense to Véronique.
“
I am formal, he palpated me.
It was not mentioned
” by the police, she replied.
Asked by AFP, she felt that her complaint had at the time been "
taken quickly
", without "
going into detail
".