an investigation opened against the AP-HP for failure to assist a person in danger after accusations of rape of a patient

The mother of a 50-year-old woman with Down syndrome criticizes the public establishment for failing to protect her daughter from another patient, whom she accuses of rape. The investigation must “specify the materiality and qualification” of the facts.

The Assistance publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) is the subject of an investigation after a complaint for failure to assist a person in danger by a legal entity. The mother of a patient criticizes the public establishment for having failed to protect her daughter from another patient, whom she accuses of rape. The mother says she was informed at the end of July by Paris hospital staff that a naked patient had been found lying against her daughter, whose diaper had been removed.

“The hospital promised me in August to take measures to protect my daughter but nothing was done”, she expressed emotion to the police, legal guardian of her daughter with Down syndrome, who suffers, at the age of 50, from neurocognitive disorders. The management of the establishment did not “did not report this tragic event to the courts, although it had a legal obligation to do so”lamented the family’s lawyer, Alexandre Lobry.

The AP-HP for its part contests this version and assures that following suspicions of rape, “the patient’s mother was seen several times” And “invited to file a complaint”. “The precautionary measures taken subsequently for the safety of the patient were also the subject of discussions with her mother, who notably rejected a proposal to transfer her daughter to another department”, continues the AP-HP. The idea of ​​a report “well done” but the latter “was not transmitted due to the filing of a complaint”adds the AP-HP.

“Gestures of a sexual nature”

On October 24, the mother decided to file a first complaint, consulted by AFP, for rape of a vulnerable person. In this complaint, she expresses her feeling that the head of department tried to make her “compate” about the suspect, repeating to him that he was “sick” and could, in the event of exclusion, find “homeless”.

A new complaint, filed on December 5 at a police station, resulted in “a procedure under the direction of the public health section of the Paris public prosecutor’s office”explained the public prosecutor, confirming information from the Parisian. An investigation is entrusted to the judicial police, for “gestures of a sexual nature suffered within the hospital”confirmed the prosecution.

The objective is to “specify the materiality and qualification” death “gestures”indicated the public prosecutor, but the suspect has not yet been heard “due to his psychiatric condition”. “Unknown to services”he is “himself interned in psychiatry for many years”. The mother claims to have “continued to cross” the suspect when she visited the girl. “He’s always on the same floor as her.”she lamented at the beginning of December.