“My ex raped me and tried to kill me. In 2 years, the justice system has never answered me”

It is a bottle in the sea in the form of a video that Lena launched in early April 2021. In a short and poignant video posted on her Instagram account, this 20-year-old young woman chose to tell about her ordeal, which lasted two years. Two years without news from justice after filing her complaint on April 6, 2019, for rape and attempted murder by her ex-boyfriend at the time.

Since ? “I was expecting a mail, a message, whatever”, she says in her video. A silence that makes it impossible to rebuild, knowing that the one against whom she has complained remains free and is not particularly worried. The man was only auditioned in January 2021 and it was he who taught Lena about it, not justice.

Difficulties in complaining and waiting in anxiety

Contacted by aufeminin, Lena details her obstacle course. First, a first attempt to lodge a complaint without making a prior appointment with the gendarmerie. Received by an agent, Lena cannot show him the evidence she has collected (harassing calls, messages confessing violence) because the latter refuses to look at them. “My telephone was nevertheless at his disposal on his desk. He preferred to argue that my complaint would have no effect and therefore, that it would be useless”, explains Léna. The gendarmes just called the man to ask him to stop his harassment. So the young woman makes a second attempt: this time the complaint is filed with the help of a facilitator from her high school and the Information Center on Women’s and Family Rights. Lena first makes an appointment with the gendarmerie and is heard again. But she denounces a complaint that leaves room for interpretation: it is played out “details: when did my ex meet my parents, when we got together, the fact that I’m giving an approximate distance (compared to when he dragged me on the ground) then that I change my mind afterwards, because I no longer know. The concern being that if I do not appear credible in the investigation concerning details, that may call into question my word. “

Until April 2021, Léna is therefore fighting to be able to modify her complaint in order to stick to reality. She also struggles on a daily basis to know the progress of her case, hoping for some progress. “As long as the investigation is not completed, my lawyer cannot have access to my file”, deplores Lena, who is managing on her side, who does not even know if the investigation is taking place. Until the ax of April 13, 2021: the complaint was dismissed …

The impossible to rebuild

During this long journey, “each time I called to try to get information”, says Lena. Supported by her parents, her friends, her feminist collage group, a lawyer, doctors, she says she luckily had the chance to be surrounded. But she also confides the anguish of living in the place where she suffered the violence, the fear of being destroyed by her executioner, the years of redoubled schooling. “When you file a complaint, we sell you dreams”, denounces Lena, who simply asks to be considered and believed. For her, that’s for sure, “It’s necessary that it moves”. “We rarely question the word of someone who is a victim of theft, but for sexual violence, we question”, she testifies. There remains the self-organization of the victims, when the institutions turn their backs on them. “What helped me almost the most was the support of my collage group, explains Léna. We don’t know anyone and yet there is a wave of solidarity, empathy, compassion, we are believed and understood by people who have often experienced similar things, it is the best therapy “.

While the official campaigns against misogynistic violence, especially sexual violence, all call for complaints, how can we believe in the police, the gendarmerie and the judiciary if no follow-up is given to these testimonies? Because what Léna describes is not an isolated case, as shown by the testimonies collected by the feminist association Nous tous and revealed by the survey. Take My Complaint, published on March 24, 2021. The refusals to take into consideration the words of the victims are legion.“The policeman tried to dissuade me from filing a complaint by telling me that he was surely a joker who was playing clever and that he would never carry out the threats”, says a witness, who experienced this situation in 2019. Another regrets: “He told me that in the absence of an attack on my physical integrity, there was no need to file a complaint” (Boulogne Billancourt, 2017) ”. The investigation reveals several big problems, common to all the testimonies: a trivialization of the facts by the police forces as well as a refusal to take the complaints, which is however illegal. Finally, for minors, we note a very frequent guilt of the victim on the part of the police.

What about Lena’s case? During an exchange with aufeminin on April 18, 2021, his lawyer indicates that he is still waiting for the classification report without follow-up to be able to examine the possible appeals. And note that the slowness of the procedures on all files is unfortunately inherent in justice. Lena, she chose to address to this justice an open letter, on behalf of all those for whom the wait is interminable.

Mathilde Wattecamps

Missions: Mathilde is an expert in subjects related to women’s rights and health. Addicted to Instagram and Twitter, never stingy with a good …