The case of a Parisian woman who says she was prepared for sex and repeatedly raped by 20 firefighters over a two-year period since she was 13 divided French society. The case, which has become part of recent uncomfortable conversations among France’s thinking class about the age of consent, incest and exploitation, will be heard before France’s highest court on Wednesday. On Sunday, hundreds of women took to the streets of Paris to demand justice and an end to what they call cultural acceptance of the victim’s guilt and flagrant rape, usually disguised as consent.
The 25-year-old woman, whom the French media dubbed “Julie”, accused all 20 firefighters of several firefighters in Paris of rape after a firefighter known as “Pierre” helped her when she suffered a severe anxiety attack in 2008.
Pierre then reportedly found her contact information in his medical file and began to bombard her with “affectionate messages” that soon became sexual in nature. She says he convinced her to undress during a video call, which she did. He then started passing on her phone number to other firefighters who asked her to do the same. She wrote in her diary at the time that she was “terrified and paralyzed with fear” at what was happening.
Three of the firefighters accused by the woman admitted to having sex with her, sometimes in groups and often in their full uniforms. On one occasion, in November 2009, she was taken to one of the fire departments when he invited two colleagues – all three of whom raped her in full uniform. The three were accused of “sexual violence”, with a prison sentence of just seven years. None of the men are charged with rape, resulting in 20 years in prison.
Firefighters who admit to having sex with the minor insist that it was consensual and that the then young teenager happily thanked and even flirted with them. One of the defendants said he had sex with her in a small bathroom in a Parisian hospital, but that he did not notice “any sign of resistance” or vulnerability on the part of the teenager.
As France does not have an official age of consent, cases like this often boil down to the victim’s shame, as defense lawyers work to prove that the victim was seductively dressed or, in this case, acted to give consent , like undressing during a video call.
France has for years debated introducing an age of consent for sex and in 2018 almost passed a law that would make sex with anyone under the age of 15 considered rape, but the law was not passed after groups of men said it would result in “an assumption of guilt” for men who were themselves victims of flirting women.
The woman’s mother, who spoke to the press, said she was shocked to learn that her daughter had been sexually exploited. She said in an interview that she had even made desserts for Pierre and the other firefighters who helped the then teenager with his anxiety attacks, which happened so often, the firefighters were called to his home 130 times in the span of two years. rapes have occurred. “I thought he was the last person to do such a thing because he helped her so many times and saw how vulnerable she was,” said the victim’s mother, according to an interview published in the Guardian.
Groups of women who protested in Paris on Sunday say the case reinforces old ideas from French society that allow sexual crimes to go unpunished. “The whole stereotype about rape is in this case: the judges and the psychiatrist say that Julie is a liar, that she consented to have sex with all those men and that she is lying about being raped because she is ashamed,” said the victim’s defender , Marjolaine Vignola. .
On Sunday, Marguerite Stern, of the feminist group l’Amazone, took to the streets of Paris. “For 10 years they fought alone, now thousands of feminists from all over France are joining them,” she told reporters, referring to the fact that the victim first accused the firefighters a decade ago. “We are demanding that firefighters be tried for rape and not for ‘sexual rape’. This culture of misogyny in our courts must end. “