It is a striking judgment, of rare severity in military cases: Julien M., a 41-year-old staff sergeant, was sentenced, Thursday, June 20, to two years in prison, suspended by the Paris Criminal Court, who found him guilty of “sexual harassment” to the detriment of Léa (first name changed), a colleague eighteen years his junior in the secretariat of the cabinet of the Minister of the Armed Forces.
This sentence is accompanied by a ban on practicing the military profession for three years, three years of ineligibility, as well as a course to combat sexism and raise awareness of equality between women and men. . The conviction will appear in bulletin no. 2 of the criminal record of Julien M., whose military career is now seriously compromised.
For four months, from the day of his arrival at the hotel in Brienne (in the 7edistrict of Paris), Léa had to endure daily the incessant sexist comments of her colleague, listed at length at the hearing: “When do we fuck?” » ; “If you don’t do your job well, I’m going to fuck you.” ; “You will laugh less when you have been sodomized”, etc. The president of the court had also listed the contentious behavior of the chief sergeant, who could come and press his cheek against that of the young woman to look at her computer screen or follow her into the locker rooms.
“Three years of suffering and fear”
Four months firm and twenty months suspended were requested by the prosecution, on May 17, at the end of a hearing marked by the contrition both strong and clumsy of the defendant. “It’s a shame, what I said is a shame, what I did is a shame”then declared Julien M. who said “regrets[r] deeply » his behavior, attributed to the ” pressure “ linked to “an immeasurable workload”while considering that it was humorous: “I thought I could make this kind of joke, that she would understand that it was absurd. »
Léa, she had told her ” descent into hell “since its ” fear “ from denouncing the facts to his internment in a psychiatric hospital after a suicide attempt, through the inappropriate reactions of his superiors and the ” disgust “ that she now feels towards the military institution. The young woman, who joined the navy at 18, and who was aiming for a position at the Elysée, sighed: “He smashed everything. »
It was with a smile that Léa left the courtroom on Thursday, where her parents had accompanied her. “It’s a huge relief, everything I endured was recognized by justiceshe reacted. It is the culmination of three years of suffering and fear. » Three years which nevertheless “allowed me to regain awareness that human beings are not bad, because I had lost a little faith in all that, because of the military world.”
You have 44.58% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.