Faid Abdellah, 24, was sentenced on Tuesday November 5, 2024 in Paris to 11 years of criminal imprisonment and permanent ban from French territory for the rape of a sleeping woman at Cochin hospital in Paris in October 2022, reports L'AFP who was present at the hearing.
The Paris criminal court found the accused guilty of rape under the influence of drugs and alcohol, against a vulnerable person, theft and fraud. His name will also be registered in Fijais, the sex offenders file.
The events took place in the emergency room
The facts for which the accused was being prosecuted took place on the night of October 27 to 28, 2022. On Monday, the 36-year-old victim explained that he had consumed alcohol that evening in a Parisian bar where she has his habits. On an empty stomach, she felt unwell, fell and was taken to the emergency room of Cochin hospital, in the 14th arrondissement of Paris.
On site, the young woman had fallen asleep in her box, before being awakened “through pain”. “I looked ahead and there I saw a scene of horror”she detailed. A man had “his hand and two or three fingers buried deep in my vagina and he moved back and forth extremely hard and fast”. The attacker then fled, taking the victim's bank card.
Tuesday at the start of the hearing, the bailiff presented to the court the victim's torn tights, pierced with a gaping hole in the private parts.
The public prosecutor had requested 12 years of criminal imprisonment against Faid Abdellah, as well as a definitive ban from French territory and his registration in Fijais.
The lawyers for the civil party had requested a “firm criminal response” in response to “the devastating impact of this crime” on the victim. “We demand compensation for her, but also for all women who have seen their lives destroyed by predators”pleaded Me Laura Abecassis.
“If she had screamed”
The descriptions of the suspect made by the victim and hospital staff on the evening of the incident converged on a North African man, approximately 1.80 m tall and bearded. He himself was reportedly hospitalized in the evening at Cochin hospital in a state of drunkenness.
Interviewed, the bar manager indicated that he had seen this man near his establishment and that he had acted “like an ill-intentioned prowler” around the victim while he was on the ground after his fall.
Questioned Tuesday morning, Faid Abdellah's speech oscillated between “I don’t remember” and version changes. In tears, he ended up asking to remain silent, answering from time to time the court's questions.
During the two days of trial, the mystery remained around this man, a construction worker, at “uncertain and fluctuating story” both on the unfolding of the facts and the elements of his personal life.
“What is true?” The first, second, third or fourth version? »asked the president of the court, Sabine Raczy. “The real version is the one I told before the investigating judge, the last one”replied Faid Abdellah, specifying that he did not have “the courage to repeat”. During the investigation, Mr. Abdellah initially denied the facts, before admitting them at the very end of the investigation.
He then admitted to having consumed “cocaine and cannabis” and raped the victim, thinking “that he liked it” and that she “looked happy” et ” All right “. “If she had screamed, I would have stopped”he repeated in court.
The defense had argued in favor of a sentence “mixed” accompanied by socio-judicial monitoring. “He knows that his life is at stake. The man’s humanity is there. I ask you to take it into account”insisted Me Clothilde Humbert.
Faid Abdellah, subject to four obligations to leave French territory since 2019, was sentenced in 2021 to one year in prison with a committal warrant for violent theft.
