Feminist activists protest against the rape of a minor by firefighters, in front of the court of Versailles, September 24, 2020. -

Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP

“Rape is a crime!

".

Sixty feminist activists demonstrated this Thursday in Versailles to support the mother of a teenage girl who came to ask the courts that firefighters accused of "sexual assault" on her daughter be tried for "rape".

Aligned before the Versailles Court of Appeal, which in the morning examined the requests of the mother of the victim, the activists of Femen and of the collective Osez le feminisme chanted "Justice for Julie!"

»,« Julie, we are with you!

".

"How can we talk about consent, and not rape, at that age?

"

In 2009, three firefighters were initially indicted for rape of a minor, an offense punishable by assizes.

But in July 2019, at the end of a long investigation, the judge finally reclassified the facts as sexual abuse and ordered a referral to correctional, causing the fury of the family and its supporters, who also demand the indictment. of all the firefighters involved in this affair, about twenty in total.

"We demand the end of this patriarchal system where rapists are still too often unpunished, released, protected," said Sophia Antoine, one of the Femen activists who demonstrated in front of the court of appeal.

“This case took ten years to come out.

The victim is a disabled adolescent, ”she said.

"How can we talk about consent, and not rape, at that age?

".

The "insufficiently characterized" adolescent's "lack of consent"

At the material time, the teenager was 14 years old and was undergoing heavy drug treatment because of frequent attacks of spasmophilia and tetany, a state of health that requires numerous interventions by firefighters, more than 130 between 2008 and 2010. She contacts some of them through social networks and will have relationships with about twenty firefighters all in their twenties, most of them stationed at the Bourg-la-Reine barracks (Hauts-de-Seine).

She will maintain an ongoing relationship with one of them for nearly a year and denounce non-consented relationships, in particular one afternoon with this firefighter who was with two colleagues.

It was these three men who were ultimately sent to correctional.

In the fall of 2018, the prosecution had requested the abandonment of the prosecution for rape, considering the "lack of consent" of the teenager "insufficiently characterized".

Miscellaneous

Investigation for "gang rape": Six firefighters placed under the status of witness assisted by an examining magistrate

Miscellaneous

Yvelines: A Paris firefighter indicted and imprisoned for the rape of a policewoman

  • Teenager

  • Rape

  • Firefighters

  • Versailles

  • Society