The migrant was acquitted for the rape of a high school girl and lightly sentenced for the sexual assault of another minor. The verdict was handed down on November 21, 2018, in Normandy.
The prosecutor had demanded six years in prison for the crime, but the respondent was acquitted of rape and received only a suspended sentence of two years for the sexual assault on his first victim.
The verdict was announced on Wednesday in the trial of the 21-year-old Bangladeshi who had been accused of rape and sexual assault of two high school girls in Saint-Lô (Manche) at the end of 2015.
The perpetrator will be registered in the sex offender file, but walked away as a free man from the Coutances courthouse.
The counsel for the defense pleaded that “difficulties of interpretation” exist which, according to her, are the common thread of these cases.
The “difficulty of interpretation” her client experienced was because he “did not have the cultural codes” to realise that he had imposed a sexual relationship based on fear and surprise, she argued.
She added that the “difficulty of interpretation” for the victim was that she saw the rapists’ advances as a “threat and therefore a constraint”. The “difficulty of interpretation” for the investigators were that that they “did not know how to measure the dismay of the victim”.
In his statement after the verdict, Judge Jean-François Villette was careful to clarify that “the decision of the court is not a questioning of the sincerity” of the complainant. Incredulously, the court found that the accused “was not aware of sexual intercourse” with the minor, despite detailed testimony.
The respondent is a refugee from Bangladesh living at the home of young workers in Saint-Lô.
The first assault took place on September 29, 2015. The accused, aged 18 at the time of the incident, went for a walk with a 16-year-old girl who attended the same high school. He then invited the girl to his room where he assaulted her. The girl managed to flee and reported the assault.
Once in custody, the respondent claimed that the girl had consented to sex. The complainant attempted suicide in late 2015, and she was hospitalized for a week. On this first day of the trial, she was absent at the hearing.
A second complaint
On December 10, 2015, the accused met a 15-year-old girl on a street in Saint-Lô. He took her to his room where he raped her. The victim told investigators that she had been paralyzed by fear and was unable to respond.
The migrant “refugee”, once more, maintained that the young teenage girl had consented and even took the initiative. The case was closed.
A victim in tears
It was not until February 2016 that a link was discovered between the two cases. On February 16, the “refugee” was arrested, indicted and incarcerated at the prison of Caen. In court, the second victim, in tears, explained the distress of not being heard that adds to the trauma of being raped.
When questioned by the court, the accused, who speaks only English and was assisted by an interpreter, maintains that both girls were consenting.
The judge nevertheless questioned his version of events: “Why do two young women, after having had sex with you, rush to the police station to file a complaint?” That question remains unanswered.
