Marseille: an alleged rape victim, three police officers, two versions, the intervention pointed out

What happened in this little rue Saint-Savournin in the 1st arrondissement of Marseille? According to local residents, the police did not do their job after a report of an alleged rape. For relief, it is above all the declarations of a heavily alcoholic woman.

That night four residents of the first arrondissement of Marseille are awakened by screams and tears in the street. It's a young woman calling for help. She would have been raped.

From a neighboring building, some clothes are thrown at him. Presumably the facts would have occurred in this apartment. The alleged victim is on the ground, half naked in the street. She is drunk and in shock.

The neighbors call the police for one, the firefighters for the other and go down to the unfortunate woman.

A few minutes later, emergency services are on the scene. Three plainclothes police officers, an unmarked car and an ambulance with three firefighters.

For the neighbors who are still present at the scene, this is where the situation becomes unspeakable. For these women, witnesses of the care of the victim, the words and actions (or inactions) of the police are a real scandal.

The four women indicate to the police the apartment from which a man threw the clothes of the alleged victim. No one wants to move there. "We can't do much, the victim is not cooperating, at the most we can put down a handrail", explains one of them.

During this time the two other police officers wait "the jaded air" according to the witnesses. One of them would have launched to his colleagues a: "we are not going to spend the night there".

"She's drunk, she must have tripped"

For the three men the agitated state of the victim seems more important than the rape of which she would have been the victim. A policeman explains: "She's drunk, she just wants to make a drama. We have to sober her up". One of the neighbors then replies: “you saw her bodysuit is undone between the legs and her shorts are down”.

Policeman's response: "I assure you that it often happens with hysterical women. You know there are plenty of hysterical ones".

Another neighbor, witness to the scene, shocked evokes the fact that the alleged victim has bruises on the face. "She's drunk, she must have tripped," said one of the policemen.

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The victim was finally taken in the firefighters' ambulance to the Timone hospital. She declined to file a complaint.

"The victim was not heard"

The four witnesses then stay together for long minutes on the sidewalk to talk about what they have just experienced. They wish to remain anonymous and above all not to create additional trouble for the woman alleged victim of rape.

But they also want to let it be known that they found the situation intolerable. “The victim was not heard, she was rushed”, assures one of them, considering that “his failing care.” The four women sent an email to the police station of the 1st arrondissement. A message that has been transferred to the police station of the 5th or their request will be processed, it seems. "We would like tomorrow the other victims to be listened to, heard, we would like to see empathy", they write.

The witnesses also wonder if a crew with at least one woman inside would not have done a little better in terms of gentleness and attentiveness.

No complaint, no intervention

We contacted the commissioner on duty that night. And there, the version differs. The police did not intervene in the apartment because the victim did not wish to file a complaint.

The early hour, four o'clock, also deterred them from breaking down a door in the absence of clearly denounced facts.

Once in the fire truck, the alleged victim would not have wanted to disclose his identity. She allegedly verbally attacked the police. She would have said on many occasions: "clear, you are useless."

The alleged victim also did not file a complaint in the following days.

For the commissioner on duty during this weekend of April 4, it was impossible to provide a crew with a woman to intervene. It is the closest teams and those who are available who go to the site. "What matters is the speed, not the diversity of the crew", explains the commissioner.

On the other hand, in the police stations, "it is most of the time women who take the complaints", she specifies. One room per police station is even dedicated to these difficult cases. "Every policeman is trained to listen to rape victims."

Four alleged rapes that weekend

Every month, as part of ongoing training, new instructions are given to police officers on how to listen to rape victims.

That weekend in Marseille, in addition to this case, three alleged rapes took place.

A few days later, feminist gluers made posters related to this event. It read "Police, take our complaints" or "Police Firefighters = accomplices". The group of women were reportedly arrested.