Sexual assault in Paris: a former member of the Superior Council of the Judiciary sentenced to one year in prison


Jean Cabannes, 67, was convicted of four sexual assaults, including three committed in the Paris metro.

The Paris Criminal Court found guilty Jean Cabannes – a former member of the Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSM) -, of four sexual assaults committed between January 2018 and February 2020, including three in the Paris metro. The judgment was rendered on Wednesday, November 9.

This 67-year-old senior official – former administrator in the Senate, ex-member of the CSM, officer of the Legion of Honor and the National Order of Merit – was sentenced to thirty months in prison: 12 firm months arranged in detention at home under an electronic bracelet and 18 months with a probationary sentence for two years. Jean Cabannes is also registered in the automated judicial file of perpetrators of sexual or violent offenses (Fijais) and subject to an obligation of care.

The judges went beyond the requisitions of the prosecution, which had requested a one-year prison sentence with a probationary suspension of three years, accompanied by an obligation of care and a course in citizenship or prevention of sexism. . During the October 21 hearing, Jean Cabannes pleaded “not guilty“and denounced at the bar an investigation”exclusively dependent“. “From the beginning, I was subject to a presumption of guilt“, he had declared, considering to have been”pilloried by a stray bullet from the #MeToo movement“.

We are relieved by this decision which recognizes his guilt but above all the seriousness of the facts. The sentence, which greatly exceeds the requisitions of the prosecution, seems perfectly adapted to the situation and will, I hope, prevent the repetition of these facts since we are faced with someone who is in a posture of denial in the face of evidence. overwhelming. We obviously do not share the same definition of honor», reacts to the Figaro Me Chloé Belloy, lawyer for one of the plaintiffs. “Satisfaction is total. After 5 hours of contradictory debate, this deliberation does justice to the words of the complainants, and takes the exact measure of the trauma suffered by these young women.“, explains for his part Me Safya Akorri, also a lawyer for a complainant.

It is an excessively rigorous decision which is more linked to the functions he held than to the objectivity of the seriousness of the facts. He paid to carry the name which is his. We do not treat it with the sufficient and necessary hindsight that we would have given to everyone“, indicates meanwhile Me Olivier Baratelli, the lawyer of Jean Cabannes, while recalling that his client “dispute the facts“.

The hand on the sex of the victims

The case began on February 5, 2020, when an 18-year-old woman went to the police station in the 13th arrondissement to denounce a sexual assault she had just suffered in the Paris metro. While she was in a wagon on line 7, a man got on at the Jussieu station and then stuck to her, with his bag slung over his belt. At the Pont Marie station, the man had pushed aside his bag and then placed his hand at the level of the young woman’s sex. The latter, paralyzed, moved away and then saw her attacker, “a male of European type aged between 60 and 70licking his lips while staring at her.

The investigation, entrusted on February 6, 2020 to the Regional Transport Security of the Ile-de-France Ile-de-France Network Brigade, made it possible to establish a connection with three other sexual assaults. An assault committed in the street, boulevard Saint-Marcel, on January 6, 2018, to the detriment of a 51-year-old woman, pressed against a door and forcibly kissed. Then two others, also committed in line 7 of the metro, on two young women aged 19 and 22, in March and April 2019. The two victims also denounced a man in his sixties who put his hand at the level of their sex.

The CCTV images relating to the events of February 5, 2020 had made it possible to establish the photograph of a suspect. Jean Cabannes, himself, had recognized himself on this shot, while denying the facts. The guardian of his building, his optician, the bookseller in his neighborhood and a former collaborator of the Senate had also identified him in this photograph. Before being confronted with video surveillance, Jean Cabannes nevertheless indicated that he was “impossible” that he was in the metro at the time of the events, February 5, 2020.

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Several elements implicated Jean Cabannes: the validations of his Navigo pass – similar to that of the man identified on the video surveillance -, the geolocation of his mobile phone – which placed him in the same metro trains as the three young women attacked sexually -, his hands”trembling» – noticed by one of the victims -, or even the expertise of his mobile phone, which brought out photographs of young women taken in public transport or even research related to street harassment.

Jean Cabannes denies the facts

Jean Cabannes, who had resigned from the CSM after his indictment, denied the facts throughout the investigation. Then he had,The death in the soul“, formulated a request for appearance on prior recognition of guilt (CRPC), in order, he had explained to the court, “to put an end to this procedure as soon as possible“. The use of this procedure ofto plead guilty“had been ruled out by the investigating judges. During his trial, he had maintained his denials in the face of two of the plaintiffs, civil parties, who “formallyrecognized as their attacker in the subway. “I don’t question the testimonials, but that’s not me“, said Jean Cabannes.

The defendant had also explained that the tremors of the hands of which he is the victim “cause involuntary movements» and that if they had «could be perceived as touching for two seconds“, it would be “unable to prove otherwise“. His lawyer, Me Olivier Baratelli, who had denounced a media cabal against his client and baseless accusations, had pleaded for release.



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