He could be one of the worst sexual predators that France has ever known.
The public prosecutor's office on Thursday demanded 20 years of criminal imprisonment against Dino Scala, "the rapist of the Sambre".
The 61-year-old man is on trial for rape, sexual assault or attempts on 56 victims, aged 13 to 48, between 1988 and 2018.
The required sentence, accompanied by two-thirds security, is the maximum incurred by the accused who has appeared since June 10 for 17 rapes, 12 attempted rapes and 27 assaults or attempted sexual assaults.
These facts would have occurred within a radius of less than 30 km around the Sambre, a river crossing the Franco-Belgian border.
"We ask you to condemn him for all 56 facts," said Advocate General Antoine Berthelot.
“We have the intimate conviction that he is the author,” he added.
Dino Scala recognizes 40 of them.
“The unthinkable banality of evil”
“The extreme dangerousness” of Dino Scala, “his ability to conceal himself (…) requires that you protect society for as long as possible”, continued the Advocate General, discerning in the course of the accused “the unthinkable banality of evil”.
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Remained elusive for 30 years, before his arrest in 2018 thanks to video surveillance images during a last attack in Belgium, Dino Scala "tirelessly went back to hunt women, girls" and committed "despicable acts, with incredible violence”, had previously launched the other general counsel, Annelise Cau.
His victims "were all confronted with the idea of their own imminent death", she hammered, castigating in the accused "a sadistic sexual desire", to "submit the victims in a position of debasement" .
"The wanderings of thirty years" of investigation
To condemn him, she said, is "to give a face to the man of the night, for these victims", whose "life has been totally invaded, colonized" by his "emergence".
"The maximum sentence he faces is in any case too low", while "a single" of these rapes would have at least "exposed him to a sentence of between 12 and 15 years", he said. also developed.
She advocated "a collective reflection" on premeditation, in terms of sexual crimes, which at this stage has "no legal consequences", or even on the price of "serial crimes".
The hearing, she pointed out, also "shed light on the errors of thirty years" of investigation and the "scandalous" treatment reserved for certain complainants, who "were not believed, sometimes mistreated", then "left alone" for years.
