serial rapist Dino Scala appears before the assizes

Three weeks of hearing to dissect 20 years of a sprawling investigation. On Friday June 10, at the Assizes of the North, in Douai, the trial of Dino Scala, nicknamed the “rapist of the Sambre”. For the 56 victims, it is a long wait that materializes. The 61-year-old cited a hunter’s instinct to explain 30 years of rapes and sexual assaults. From 1988 to 2018, this former worker and president of a local football club attacked women aged 13 to 48. In a very specific area, along the Sander valley, on the border between France and Belgium.

For more than 20 years, the police did not find his trace, until Monday, February 5, 2018. After sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl, Dino Scala fled and drove past Erquelinnes station (Belgium) . A surveillance camera films part of his license plate. Investigators track him down and arrest him. The serial rapist’s trial ends July 1. He faces up to 20 years in prison.