The young woman who filed a complaint against Caroline Rey-Salmon confided her testimony exclusively to franceinfo. The new vice-president of the Ciivise denies all the accusations.
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Barely launched on Monday February 5 by the Minister responsible for Health, Catherine Vautrin, the new independent commission on incest and sexual violence against children (Ciivise) is in turmoil. Its new vice-president, Caroline Rey-Salmon, is accused by a 25-year-old woman of sexual assault. Louison [le prénom a été changé] filed a complaint on Tuesday at a police station near her home, franceinfo learned.
According to the story she delivered exclusively to franceinfo, Louison decided to file a complaint against Caroline Rey-Salmon, forensic pediatrician and legal expert, after a gynecological examination that she underwent almost four years ago. An examination carried out as part of a judicial investigation because Louison confides having been a victim of incest for several years in his childhood. It is for this reason that the minor protection brigade (BPM) turned to Caroline Rey-Salmon so that the latter could carry out a gynecological assessment.
A gynecological examination in question
Summoned, the young girl dreads this meeting but goes to the Hôtel-Dieu hospital in Paris in June 2020. “I came here feeling very stressed“, remembers Louison. She comes away with this conviction: “I was the victim of a new sexual assault during the expertise”, says the complainant today. According to Louison, Caroline Rey-Salmon examines him. “After the examination she told me that I was wrong, that I could not have suffered vaginal rape because my hymen was not torn”relates Louison.
This is where the gynecological examination goes wrong, according to the young woman: “She put her fingers on my penis, she said to me: ‘Close your eyes, imagine that there is the penis of the attacker who is on you. Don’t you think that he was doing rather this gesture ?’ […] She made the back and forth motion on my penis several times.” Louison assures us: “I kept repeating ‘I don’t know anymore, I don’t know anymore’. She [Caroline Rey-Salmon] said: ‘Yes, close your eyes, remember, put yourself back in the scene.'”
“I have the impression once again that society is making fun of me”
Nearly four years later, this scene still traumatizes Louison. She remembers : “There I totally dissociated and I forgot the rest of the exam. I felt myself completely leaving, I was no longer there, I could no longer move, no longer do anything.”
“I was completely stunned, it was so violent that I forgot the end of the exam. I don’t know how I got home.”
At the time, Louison did not wish to file a complaint against this doctor so as not to take additional steps while she was already fighting to have the incest she denounced recognized. The case has been pending for three years. Louison also claims to have never received Caroline Rey-Salmon’s expert report. So why is she filing a complaint today? The turning point came in December, says Louison. When she discovered the names of the new leadership team of the Ciivise.
“On the networks, I saw her name and her face appear. It shocked me to see her. I told myself that I was wrong, I went to look in my documents to find the summons and I saw that it was indeed she who had examined me”she remembers. “I can’t do nothing and say nothing”. Louison cannot accept the appointment of Caroline Rey-Salmon at the head of the Ciivise: “Being at the head of the Ciivise whose goal is precisely to fight against sexual violence and protect children, I don’t have any confidence at all. I have the impression once again that society is making fun of me .”
Caroline Rey-Salmon disputes the accusations
Contacted by franceinfo, Caroline Rey-Salmon reacted minimally: “I deny all of the accusations against me but do not wish to make any comment at this time.” Furthermore, franceinfo found writings in her hand, in which Caroline Rey-Salmon nevertheless seems to validate the examination method described by Louison.
In the specialist journal The Justice NotebooksCaroline Rey-Salmon wrote an article in 2018 entitled “Sexual violence against minors: medical diagnosis, findings and perspectives”. The doctor explains that “children are unaware of their genital anatomy […] and do not have the words to describe what they suffered.” She continues: “That’s the whole point of doing a sort of reconstruction of the attacker’s actions with the child on the examination table and collecting their feelings to be as close as possible to the unfolding of the events.” Franceinfo questioned other forensic pediatricians and expert psychiatrists in the courts, and none validate such a practice.
In support of Louison, a petition was launched by the Movement to combat all forms of violence against children (Mouv’Enfants). The association recognizes that “the presumption of innocence must be preserved”. But she asks the president of the Ciivise and Catherine Vautrin, the Minister of Labor, Health and Solidarity, “the immediate withdrawal of Doctor Caroline Rey-Salmon”. “How can we ensure that the Independent Commission on Incest and Child Sexual Abuse is a safe space for victims of childhood sexual violence, if the vice-president is being questioned for such acts?”ask the authors of the petition. “Louison, we believe you, we support you!”adds Mouv’Enfants.