The student claimed to have been raped by several firefighters at the Plaisance barracks, in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, on the night of May 3 to 4, 2019. An investigating judge finally dismissed, on April 28, six firefighters from the Paris fire brigade (BSPP), accused of rape by a Norwegian student. A judicial source confirmed to franceinfo, Sunday, May 29, this information from Parisian.
The young Norwegian had filed a complaint and told the investigators that she had had a consensual relationship in the barracks with a firefighter met in a bar, “with two of his compatriots”, according The Parisian. “On site, the three young women flirt with a group of firefighters who are celebrating the departure of one of their own”specifies the daily. Then, according to his story, other firefighters forced him to have sex, in the room of the first firefighter, within the barracks. “During her complaint, she said she had the feeling that her body no longer obeyed her and that she had had the impression ‘of being an object'”, adds The Parisian. But during their police custody, the six firefighters implicated by the young woman had refuted the facts, describing consensual sexual acts.
The Paris prosecutor’s office had opened a preliminary investigation for “rapes in meetings”. A magistrate from the military affairs section had requested the indictment of four of them for “rape in a meeting” and for “non-impediment of crime” for the other two. Nevertheless, the investigating judge in charge of the judicial information considered that there was no “not enough information” justifying at this stage the prosecution of the six firefighters, then aged 23 to 35, according to AFP. Placed under the more favorable status of assisted witness, none of them was indicted during the procedure, according to the judicial source.
The investigating judge therefore issued a dismissal order on April 28. According to the magistrate quoted by Le Parisien, “it does not appear that the civil party was subjected to real violence, physical constraint or threats” and demonstrated “a refusal, any opposition when new partners arrive”.
“Justice has rendered a coherent decision, it’s a real relief”, reacted Géraldine Vallat, lawyer for a firefighter. But these accusations have “shattered professional career dreams”, she added. The lawyer recalled that the six firefighters had been suspended as soon as the rape charges were revealed. Contacted by The Parisianthe plaintiff’s lawyer “indicates that the latter has protected itself by moving away from the file and that he does not wish to make any comment on this dismissal”.