A 33-year-old Afghan, Abdurahman M., is tried this Thursday, December 1 by the criminal court of Cusset.
He is suspected of having sexually assaulted a woman in her forties in the toilets of Vichy station (Allier).
The charges against him date back to November 7, 2021. That day, Isabelle *, 45, went to the SNCF station to buy a train ticket.
At 5:33 p.m., while she was on the station esplanade, a stranger - dressed in a djellaba and black jogging pants - approached her to ask for a light.
Ten minutes later, CCTV from the station shows Isabelle heading for the toilet.
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According to Isabelle's testimony, the stranger would then have blocked with his foot the door of the cabin where she was.
Then he would have locked the door behind him while speaking to her in a foreign language.
The man would then have touched her over her clothes, before rubbing his penis against her lower abdomen and penetrating her digitally, according to Isabelle.
The suspect's semen was found on the victim's leggings and black dress.
The 40-year-old leaves the station at 5:53 p.m., according to the CCTV images on which she appears disoriented.
The suspect takes the same exit a minute later.
The defendant, who arrived in France in October 2019 and without a profession, was finally arrested on November 9, 2021. He was indicted and placed in pre-trial detention two days later.
According to his version, the victim had asked him if they could have sex in the toilets of the station.
The "corrected" file
The investigating judge's investigation highlights "
the precise, constant and detailed facts denounced by the complainant
".
Judicial information had initially been opened for rape but the facts were finally reclassified as sexual assault, with the agreement of the victim, because "
nothing allows to establish with certainty the existence of an act of sexual penetration, including including digital
,” according to the survey.
“
My client maintains that there was an act of penetration, her version has never changed
,” explains Me Émilie Pignaud, the victim's lawyer.
“
My client accepted correctionalization.
Better a lesser offense but with certain condemnation.
My client will come to the hearing but will not be required to speak.
If the case had been tried before an assize court, she should have testified and traveled to Moulins.
It would have been more psychologically taxing for her
, ”continues the criminal lawyer.
The victim, who had a stay in psychiatry after the fact, will be accompanied by a nurse during the hearing.
The suspect, who does not speak a word of French, will be supported by an interpreter.
Abdurahman M. faces a maximum five-year prison sentence and banishment from French territory.
He would have filed an asylum application with the OFPRA (French office for the protection of refugees and stateless persons, editor's note), which he would have been dismissed on November 30, 2021, a few days after the facts.
*Name has been changed.