14 years in prison for a nurse who raped a "vulnerable" patient

The American Hospital of Paris, in Neuilly-sur-Seine.

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A nurse from the American Hospital of Neuilly-sur-Seine was sentenced Monday by the Hauts-de-Seine Assize Court to 14 years of criminal imprisonment for having raped in 2018 a patient under heavy psychotropic treatment.

This sentence, slightly less onerous than that required by the public prosecutor, was accompanied by a definitive ban from exercising any medical and paramedical profession, socio-judicial monitoring for five years and an injunction for treatment.

"The accused knew that it was impossible" for the victim "to consent to sexual intercourse" and in view of the "loss of libido" due to her epilepsy, "it is unlikely that she had any desire for a nurse met a few days earlier, ”said the president.

There was therefore “rape on a particularly vulnerable person” and under “chemical submission”, even if it was prescribed “on prescription”, the Advocate General had underlined earlier.

"Predator"

Sylvie Noachovitch, lawyer for the civil party, described the accused as a "predator", considering that "if tomorrow he is outside, he starts again".

What Me Fabien Arakelian, his opponent who asked for acquittal, strongly contested: "'' Predator '', nothing says in the file!

".

The court, however, noted in its judgment a "real criminological danger" of this 51-year-old man and an "inability to introspection which gives rise to fear of a recurrence".

The victim, a 34-year-old ex-model, who also worked in real estate, was admitted in early February to the American Hospital for an allergy to his antiepileptic treatment.

One evening, the nurse administers her treatment, a cocktail of antihistamines, antiepileptics and anxiolytics which "shoot" her, she said at the bar, which has been confirmed by the experts.

" Sorry darling "

Once asleep, the nurse who, the previous days, had complimented her, going so far as to stroke her arm, comes back to see her and, without her being able to react, rapes her.

Shortly after, he sends her an apologetic text: "Sorry, beautiful".

The accused however explained that he had only yielded to the “advances” of his patient who was “consenting”, according to him.

This father of Algerian nationality, who had worked at the Neuilly hospital since 2006, had already been convicted in 2012 for "sexual assault on a vulnerable person" for facts that took place in a hospital in Nanterre with "fashion identity operative ”, noted the court.

In this man subject to "cognitive distortions", the experts have detected no mental pathology, but a strong need for "reassurance about his virility".

The victim, she says "destroyed", "unable to work" and has since developed a "phobia" of the medical world.

• Rape

• Justice