The collection of evidence without prior filing of a complaint has been implemented on an experimental basis since January 2023 within the Maison des femmes de l’Hôtel-Dieu AP-HP, with a limited number of partner services having access to this system. In view of the smooth progress of the experimental phase of the system, an agreement was drawn up jointly by the Paris public prosecutor’s office and the AP-HP, in conjunction with the police headquarters to frame, formalize and perpetuate the procedure.
The evidence (in particular DNA samples) must be collected by forensic doctors from the medico-judicial unit (UMJ), according to the same procedures as when legal proceedings are opened.
Thus, this system allows the victim to benefit from time for reflection within the framework of multidisciplinary support, while preserving their rights and avoiding dismissal, acquittal or acquittal, due to lack of material evidence.
In 2023, 22 victims benefited from this procedure and 16 victims in the first nine months of 2024. To date, six patients treated in 2023 and five patients treated in 2024 have already filed a complaint.
The signing of this agreement took place on October 10, 2024 at the Hôtel-Dieu AP-HP, in the presence of Nicolas Revel, general director of the AP-HP, Laurent Nuñez, police prefect and Laure Beccuau, public prosecutor. the Republic of Paris.
How the procedure works in practice:
- a patient treated in a Parisian AP-HP hospital indicates that she has just been the victim of rape or sexual assault, that she does not wish to file a complaint at this stage, but would like a collection of evidence;
- urgent care is taken care of by the service receiving the patient (e.g. anti-retroviral treatment, emergency contraception, heavy bleeding) and with her agreement and in compliance with strict criteria of time since the acts of attack reported, she is redirected to the Women’s Center by appointment, where she is examined by a midwife/forensic doctor pair from the UMJ and receives an immediate psychological consultation;
- if the forensic doctor considers it necessary, samples are taken and kept for three years under the same conditions as in the event of legal proceedings;
- the patient benefits from multidisciplinary support, within the Maison des femmes or with partner structures;
- if she files a complaint subsequently, it is subject to examination at the UMJ, supplementing the previous one, upon judicial requisition. The samples, transferred to the UMJ, can be used as part of the criminal procedure.
This agreement is an extension of the “ Grenelle on domestic violence » launched on September 3, 2019 and the report of the joint inspection mission relating to the collection of evidence without complaint for victims of physical and sexual violence in 2019 for which a circular was published in November 2021. The complaint filing system in situ gave rise to a first agreement signed in October 2023 between the AP-HP, the police headquarters, the public prosecutor’s office of Paris, Nanterre, Bobigny and Créteil.In the other departments of Île-de-France, it is planned to extend the system to the UMJ of the Jean-Verdier AP-HP hospital (which has already been practicing it for ten years without agreement) and to the UMJ of the Raymond-Poincaré AP-HP hospital, as part ofaction 26 of the Patients plan.
