The “predator of the Bois de Vincennes” arrested and charged with “rape” and “sexual assault”

The 46-year-old man has been in pre-trial detention since August 24 after being arrested at his workplace. The investigation is continuing to identify other potential victims.

The police arrested him early in the morning in the store where he worked as an order preparer. A man suspected of having committed at least one rape, one attempted rape, sexual assaults and indecent exposure in recent months in the Bois de Vincennes, in eastern Paris, was arrested on August 22 in Vitry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne), franceinfo learned from the Paris prosecutor’s office on Wednesday September 4, confirming information from TF1.

Aged 46, this man had been convicted by the Val-de-Marne Assize Court in December 2015 for similar criminal acts, the prosecution said. Following a psychiatric assessment carried out in police custody in August, he was found criminally responsible. Indicted two days after his arrest, the forty-year-old is now in pretrial detention.

This arrest puts an end to a year of stalking and terror in the woods around the Cartoucherie site, which houses a school, theaters and an equestrian center. To warn women of the potential danger, signs had been hung in some alleys by the theater teams, with the following text: “Alert! The Bois de Vincennes is not safe. So, to leave in the evening, if you are on foot or even by bike, never leave alone! Take our shuttle or 112 or ask for a carpool.”

The events began a year ago. EBetween September 5 and May 23, the man is suspected of masturbating in front of three women, which led to him being charged with “repeat indecent exposure,” according to the prosecution. At least four sexual assaults were committed on March 25, May 23, and July 17 and 24, leading to an indictment for this second charge. Suspected of having forced a woman to perform fellatio on May 28, the suspect is also being charged with “repeat rape,” the prosecution said.

Finally, he is accused a “repeat attempted rape” of a young deaf and mute woman. On August 19, the latter had been dragged into the undergrowth by a man who, after starting to pull down her pants, tore her clothes. Injured, she managed to escape and raise the alarm with a Sentinelle patrol, before being accompanied to the police station. Thanks to “the exploitation of video surveillance” and because “the report matched”, The investigators from the judicial police then made the connection with the rape committed on May 28, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.

A report of theThe director of the Atelier de Paris, located within the Cartoucherie, had reported several women who had been victims of the same attacker as they left the establishment where they worked.The recurring description of a man hiding his face behind a surgical mask and of a repeated method of operation led to suspicions being focused on the same probable perpetrator”the prosecution said.

“The investigations are now continuing under the direction of the investigating judge and will aim in particular to determine whether other people may have been victims of the same suspect,” concludes the Paris prosecutor’s office.