the suspect arrested and placed in police custody, denies the facts

A DNA report incriminates him for one of the rapes, said the Grenoble prosecutor.

According to a source close to the investigation at franceinfo, the suspect arrested Friday as part of the investigation into a series of sexual assaults and rapes committed in Grenoble and its outskirts, by a man riding a scooter, denied the facts accused of during his custody. This same source confirms that the 22-year-old man did not come spontaneously to denounce himself to investigators.

It was the DNA expertise, carried out urgently by the Lyon national police laboratory, which made it possible to confuse the individual “on one of the cases which the prosecution referred to the investigating judge”said Grenoble public prosecutor Éric Vaillant on Saturday. “A single rape can be reliably attributed to the suspect thanks to DNA.” The man will be brought before the investigating judge. The Grenoble prosecutor will hold a press conference on Sunday.

Seven facts retained including two rapes

The Grenoble public prosecutor’s office opened a judicial investigation on March 29 for seven acts, two rapes, an attempted rape, a sexual assault and violence committed between February 8 and March 16, in the case known as the “rapist in the scooter”. In detail, the investigation concerns two acts of rape committed in Grenoble and Saint-Martin-d’Hères on March 11 and 16, an attempted rape committed in Grenoble on March 16, a sexual assault committed in Grenoble on February 17 , violence with weapons committed in Grenoble on February 17, an attempted extortion committed in Saint-Martin-le-Vinoux on February 8 and violence committed in Grenoble on February 8, according to the prosecution.

Each time, the suspect uses the same method: he spots his victims on scooters, follows them and attacks them. The Grenoble public prosecutor, Éric Vaillant, explained on March 29 that the attacker was actively sought by the authorities. He is a man in his twenties, “European type, without accent, around 1.70 m tall and of normal or even slightly plump build, brown eyes, pale complexion and rather red hair”. The Grenoble public prosecutor’s office further specified that the attacker acted “alone, dressed in black and riding a black scooter”.