A man, aged 23, will soon be tried in Paris for aggravated rape of an unconscious patient at Cochin hospital in October 2022, AFP learned on Tuesday from a source close to the case, confirming information from RMC.
An investigating judge ordered Monday that this man, of no fixed address, be tried before the Paris departmental criminal court, according to the indictment order consulted by AFP.
According to the prosecution, the suspect confessed at the end of the investigation, after initially denying, a rape of an unconscious patient, and the theft of her credit card, in October 2022.
He will have to appear for aggravated rape due to the “particular vulnerability” of the complainant, aged 34, “deprived of any capacity to resist given her loss of consciousness and her alcoholism”, according to the order.
He will also be tried for theft and fraud.
His lawyer, Me Clothilde Humbert, could not immediately be reached.
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On October 28, 2022, the plaintiff spent the evening in a trendy bar in eastern Paris when she finally fell and felt unwell.
Taken to Cochin hospital, she was admitted to the emergency room for an examination.
An “inevitable” trial
In her cubicle, the patient was awakened by “coming and going with two fingers in her vagina”, according to her account to investigators.
A suspect then fled.
The investigations made it possible to retrace his itinerary: he had first witnessed the victim's fall, near the bar, before himself being admitted to the emergency room for drunkenness.
Video surveillance footage from the hospital showed him "wandering" through the hallways, then a nurse saw him "enter" the victim's cubicle, according to the order.
“A genetic expertise revealed the presence of sperm” which “belonged” to the suspect, in the private parts and clothes of the complainant, also noted the investigating judge.
The woman's lawyers, Mes Alexandre Lobry and Laura Abecassis, considered the trial "inevitable" in view of "the evidence collected during the investigation".
However, they regretted, to the AFP, “the absence of prosecution of the Cochin hospital”.
They had filed a complaint with the constitution of a civil party for endangering the lives of others, failure to assist a person in danger and involuntary injuries, in January 2023. This complaint, registered a year later with the investigating judges' service , has not resulted in the opening of a judicial investigation at this stage.