This Friday, May 28, the lesbophobic nature of the rape suffered by Jeanne (the first name has been changed), the night of October 8, 2017, was recognized by the Paris Assize Court of Appeal, because of the comments made by the ‘accused on the sexual orientation of his victim. The attacker was sentenced to fourteen years in prison “With the circumstance that the facts were accompanied by remarks detrimental to the honor or the consideration of the victim because of his sexual orientation”.
This constitutes a “First”, underlined Stéphane Maugendre, the victim’s lawyer, at the end of the hearing. “I am seldom moved at the time of deliberation, and today, I am very, very moved. And proud to have been alongside Jeanne. This is the continuation of the Aix-en-Provence trial », he continued, referring to the resounding 1978 trial, when Gisèle Halimi defended two raped women – both were lesbians – and which marked a major turning point in the mobilization and collective perception around sexual violence.
In March 2020, Jeanne’s assailant was sentenced to fifteen years in prison, the maximum penalty provided for rape, but the aggravating circumstance of the homophobic nature of the assault had not been retained by the Assize Court of Seine-Saint-Denis. The accused appealed. The sentence is lower this time, fourteen years, because of the confession of this one, who recognized for the first time the rape and the violence.
On October 8, 2017, when Jeanne, then 31, and her attacker, 22, meet, she immediately announces to him that she is a lesbian. The two young people return to the young woman’s in Saint-Ouen (Seine-Saint-Denis). Jeanne has always maintained her statements: she did consider having sex with him but after painful attempts, she asked him to stop. In vain. “Ah, you like girls, I’m going to make you like”, threatened the young man before raping and beating her. An hour and a half of violence, “Torture”, during which the victim sees himself dying of pain.
“We cannot pretend not to understand”
“He wanted to destroy me for what I am”, said Jeanne, Thursday, May 27, in court. During his plea, Stéphane Maugendre stressed that there was no doubt that his attacker wanted, by forcing her, “To bring her back to the right path”. “Throughout his hearings, the accused did not cease to return to the sexual orientation of the victim” : on four minutes, the lawyer counted “Twelve allusions to his homosexuality”. If the accused admitted during this second trial that Jeanne had told him to be a lesbian, he however denied that the victim’s sexual orientation had motivated his act.
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