Was a medical student accused of rape and sexual assault “protected” by the University of Tours? On April 15, collages in the premises of the Faculty of Medicine questioned the responsibility of the university by accusing it of “protect the rapists” especially this student. According to information collected by franceinfo, certain reactions from the management of the establishment raise questions. The Ministries of Health and Higher Education seized the General Inspectorate of Education, Sport and Research to investigate.
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It all starts in September 2020. At the beginning of the month, on September 8, a student from the Faculty of Medicine in Tours confides in the establishment’s listening committee. She claims to have been sexually assaulted by a 4th year student whom we will call Benoît*. The young woman announces her intention to file a complaint.
In reality, she is not the only one: four other women file a complaint against Benoît. One for rape, the others for sexual assault. Facts that span from 2013 to 2020, suspected of having been committed in particular in private parties. Three of the complainants are medical students, the fourth is a young woman met at a party. The last was in high school with Benoît and was only 15 at the time of the events. Most young women say they were assaulted while they were asleep. According to one of them, Benoît tried to penetrate her while she slept, another said she was awakened by his hands on her chest and in her panties.
After this first interview, at the beginning of September, the person in charge of the listening committee warns the police and alerts according to our information, the administrative head of the faculty of medicine by email and by telephone. From that moment, she warned her interlocutors about “dangers“What could this student represent during the internships he does as part of his studies, and in particular during his on-call gynecology. She also says she is launching an internal and independent procedure.
Very quickly, the main officials of the university are warned. Especially the president of the university. According to the Education Code, he alone has “police” power within the establishment. Clearly he alone can decide to seize a disciplinary committee and to suspend or dismiss the student. But at that time, the president, Philippe Vendrix, preferred to wait to find out more. On the other hand, the dean of the faculty of medicine, Patrice Diot, decides to take things in hand. On September 10, a meeting is organized with several representatives of the management of the faculty and the hospital where the student is in training at that time.
According to a source present at this meeting and whose story franceinfo was able to consult, the dean of the faculty then evokes “the delicacy of the file” because of the family of the student in question: his parents are indeed recognized and renowned doctors in Tours, whom the dean himself met on the benches of the university. According to this same source, the dean indicates that he will receive the complainants, as well as the student in question and his family. According to our information, at least two people present at the meeting then told the dean that this initiative was “insufficient” and above all that it does not fall within the framework of the procedure provided for in this type of situation.
On September 14, the dean of the faculty of medicine nevertheless received the complainants as well as the student in question and his family. Contacted by franceinfo, the dean claims not to remember what term he used during the meeting of September 10 but he confirms these interviews and claims to have from that moment prohibited the student from any presence on the campus as well as on his place. internship. A decision which is not official and which does not fall within the prerogatives of the dean. Moreover, the Dean himself admits, there is no “no written record” of this ban. Assure him that the measure was followed by the student, but at least two witnesses claim to have met Benoît several times at the place of the internship between mid-September and his placement in police custody, then in pre-trial detention on September 30 2020.
Two months later, Benoît was released and placed under judicial supervision. But here again, no disciplinary procedure has been initiated by the University of Tours. However, on the website of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, it is specified that “the attack on order and the proper functioning of the establishment makes it possible to sanction acts of any kind committed inside or outside the establishment when there is a link with the establishment”.
Why then did the university never open disciplinary proceedings against Benoît? On this point, the various managers of Tours pass the buck. At the material time, the president considers that he does not have enough elements to decide. And in November 2020, the new president, Arnaud Giacometti assures that he is not informed of this affair. Questioned by franceinfo, he claims to have been aware of this affair only a few days ago, after the collages in the university in April 2022. However, according to an internal source at the university, all the elements relating to this affair have been transmitted when changing direction. Result: the student was never sanctioned by the university, which allowed him a few months later to continue his studies in Limoges.
After his release from pre-trial detention, the justice system authorizes Benoît to continue his education. On the other hand, he is prohibited from staying in Indre-et-Loire. So he begins to look for a new faculty where to continue his studies. Several universities, including that of Bordeaux, refused his candidacy. But he was finally accepted at the faculty of Limoges. A transfer facilitated, according to the feminist collective behind the collages, by the dean of the University of Tours. The collective evokes in particular a letter of recommendation sent by Patrice Diot. The dean strongly denies having intervened to facilitate the transfer of Benoît. He claims to have even called the dean of the University of Limoges to inform him of the legal proceedings in progress against the student. He also denies having written a letter of recommendation to Benoît.
On the side of the faculty of Limoges, the president of the university confirms that a telephone exchange took place between the two deans but denies having received a letter of recommendation from the university of Tours. According to her, the dean of the Faculty of Medicine of Limoges, “did not consider himself capable of refusing the application” of this student because “presumption of innocence”, and the judicial review that allowed him to continue his studies. Above all, there was “no disciplinary action” pronounced by the faculty of Tours. If that had been the case “we might not have accepted it”assures the president of the university.
Just after his arrival in Limoges, Benoît then began an internship in gynecology. An assignment that “upset” the women behind the complaints. According to their lawyer Me Marc Morin, “it’s like allowing an individual suspected of pedophile acts to work in a daycare center”. The president of the University of Limoges, however, disputes any problem with this assignment. According to her, “an algorithm” decided alone on this internship “mandatory”, “without the student’s wish”. It is also subject to surveillance measures in Limoges: “He is forbidden to be alone with a student or a patient”says the president of the University of Limoges.
Precautions received with skepticism from the side of the students. How indeed to ensure the implementation of this measure when most hospitals are constantly understaffed? Student representatives are to be received soon, on this point, by the presidency of the University of Limoges. For its part, the Ministries of Higher Education and that of Health have ordered a general inspection to shed light on the way in which this affair was managed at the university level. The dean of the faculty of Tours filed a complaint on Tuesday for defamation, intrusion, and degradation against the collective at the initiative of the collages.
*Name has been changed