In the small courtroom, after these few days, they hold each other together, united and tender.
“You’re not alone,” a whisper whispers when the next one is called to give evidence.
Some “didn’t have the strength” and others couldn’t come.
But most of the accusers of Salim Berrada, 38, tried since Monday before the Paris criminal court for 17 aggravated rapes and sexual assaults, chose to face him and testify.
Punctuated by silences and tears, precise and poignant, their stories paint the portrait of a worrying predator.
Questioned after each of these statements, the former photographer denies it, clinging to notes, determined to defend “consensual relationships”.
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