A caregiver, who was arrested in June for sexual assault and sexual harassment on four people in a Haute-Saone Ehpad, is suspected of having committed similar crimes against nine other victims in several institutions in the region, the prosecutor's office said on Thursday. .
This 60-year-old caregiver, who "formally denies his involvement and challenges all complaints," will be presented to an examining magistrate on Thursday afternoon for a second charge for sexual assault, said Vesoul's prosecutor, Emmanuel Dupic, during a press conference.
"We are afraid there will be other victims"
The man is believed to have sexually assaulted six people aged 75 to 90, including one man, as well as seven colleagues, including a 16-year-old trainee from 2013 to 2019, said the magistrate. "This census is not exhaustive." Given the modus operandi, we are afraid that there will be other victims, "he added. According to the testimony "extremely difficult to collect" of these elderly and vulnerable, the suspect would have acted during the care he lavished on them, taking advantage of being alone with them, said Emmanuel Dupic.
Internal reports
The victims were identified in five different Ehpad located in Haute-Saone, Territoire-de-Belfort and Doubs. When the man was fired from an institution because of problems with his colleagues or "internal reports", he "found easily work in other institutions," says the magistrate.
"With the investigators, we were extremely surprised at the functioning of these Ehpad who never reported the facts to the police nor warned his new employer," he said again, saying that "they are dysfunctions of nature to allow the reiteration of the facts "to the extent that" the police and justice have not been prevented ". The facts alleged against the caregiver are punishable by seven years in prison, said the prosecutor. The investigation was entrusted to the judicial police of Besançon.