The 46-year-old man was sentenced to the same sentence as at first instance for acts of rape, attempted rape and aggravated sexual assault, between 1995 and 2000.
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The Paris Assize Court of Appeal deliberated 14 hours before sentencing, again, Aïssa Zerouati, to 20 years imprisonment for more than thirty acts of rape, attempted rape and aggravated sexual assault, in the Sénart forest, 25 km south-east of Paris, between 1995 and 2000. The court’s decision was handed down on the night of Thursday 21 to Friday 22 October. This 46-year-old man, father of a family, was found guilty of the charges, which he had continued to fiercely deny during the debates, then finally sentenced to the same sentence as at first instance.
the “rapist of the Sénart forest”, as the press called it, had sowed fear for five years among the joggers and walkers of the vast forest, which he attacked without taking off his full-face motorcycle helmet. The accused had been confused by DNA traces (blood and semen) found on half of his victims.
The recurrent modus operandi and the consistent testimonies of the complainants on the physical appearance of the aggressor enabled the investigators to conclude that the offenses were serial. Simulating a breakdown of his two-wheeler, the assailant threw himself on them and beat them to control them. Then he would require fellatio or masturbation in most cases, or subjected them to penetrations. Aïssa Zerouati was indicted in 2015 for 34 acts of rape, attempted rape and aggravated sexual assault – some victims being pregnant or elderly and having sometimes been threatened with a weapon.