a demonstration to denounce the case of a medical student convicted but not dismissed

Several associations and collectives are calling for a rally on Wednesday in front of the Ministry of Health to denounce the “morbid omerta” which reigns, according to them, in the medical field regarding sexist and sexual violence. In their sights in particular: the case of a student convicted of sexual assault.

Should a medical student be able to practice despite two convictions for sexual assault? No, say several collectives and associations who are calling for a rally in front of the Ministry of Health on Wednesday May 29 at 6 p.m. For these associations, this case is revealing of “morbid omerta” which reigns over sexist and sexual violence in the medical field.

This student, Nicolas W., was convicted twice last December and March for acts of sexual assault committed between 2013 and 2020. One committed when he was a minor on another minor victim, the others perpetrated on three medical students at private parties.

In its judgment rendered on March 19 and which franceinfo was able to consult, the Tours criminal court considered that the behavior of this student had been of a “extreme gravity”. Multiple sexual assaults, “following an identical pattern”. Each time the victims were asleep “allowing Nicolas W. to easily access their body without her being able to object”.

The student, now 26 years old, received a four and five month suspended prison sentence, registration in the File of Perpetrators of Sexual Offenses (FIJAS) but not a ban on continuing his studies. Since his convictions, he has continued his studies in 5^e year of medicine at the University of Limoges.

“We do not understand how this student could become a doctor when he was convicted and admitted the facts. And yet nothing happens.”

Pauline, spokesperson for the Emma Auclert collective

at franceinfo

A symptomatic situation of “the impunity of the attackers”, estimates Pauline, spokesperson for the Emma Auclert collective, made up mainly of students from the same year as Nicolas W. in Limoges. “This is what seems absurd to us: that we allow an attacker to endanger other students, colleagues and patients,” adds the student.

A student at the University of Limoges after having had to leave that of Tours, Nicolas W. has been the subject of disciplinary proceedings since mid-May 2024. A body must now investigate the case, which should take several weeks, or even several months. At the end, the commission could pronounce a sanction “likely to go as far as definitive exclusion of the person concerned”specifies the president of the University of Medicine of Limoges in a press release.

Except that at the start of the next school year, Nicolas W. will probably be far from Limoges. Currently taking the internship exam, he could be assigned (if he passes) to a hospital in another department and therefore to a new university.

There remains the Order of Physicians, with whom all medical interns must register in order to practice. In an interview published Monday by the newspaper West Francethe president of the National Order of Physicians François Arnault announces the creation of a circular so that “students criminally sanctioned during their studies for crimes judged definitively” cannot “not practice medicine”.

Except that in the case of Nicolas W., the convictions relate to misdemeanors and not crimes. It is therefore, a priori, not concerned by this circular. Contacted by franceinfo, the National Order of Physicians indicates “very strongly advise not to register doctors convicted of serious offenses including obviously sexual violence”. But the final decision rests with the departmental councils of the Order who must assess whether such a conviction can be “undermining the integrity and morality of the doctor”. An evaluation on a case-by-case basis and for which there are, in the event of refusal of registration, several avenues of appeal.