This Tuesday, prosecutor Laurence Brenlla created a surprise. In the case of the prostitute who was allegedly raped, beaten and abandoned in the vineyards, on the heights of Vevey (VD) in 2022, she waived the charge of rape. The representative of the Public Prosecutor’s Office began by recalling that the accused “are all three very young. They have already been convicted several times, including by the Juvenile Court. They are unoccupied and adrift. She then stressed that “their statements correspond to the elements found, the doubt must benefit them”. And the three defendants always maintained that the sexual relations had been consensual.
On the other hand, they admitted to having sprayed the young woman, mother of two children, with pepper spray and to having stolen her handbag, containing at least 800 francs and her mobile phone. The prosecutor therefore requested 3 years in prison against the main perpetrator, as well as 7 months in prison and 18 months suspended sentence against the co-perpetrators of the robbery. She felt that they had orchestrated a “real ambush” and acted with “cruelty” when they “abandoned her in the middle of nowhere”.
As for the plaintiff’s lawyer, he is not budgering. Her client was indeed raped and the beatings she says she received were very real. “Even today, she remains traumatized and must undergo psychological treatment,” he revealed. His request for moral compensation of 45,000 francs therefore remains current.
Finally, the defense lawyers recalled that most of the lesions found on the prostitute’s body were “scratches” that she may have sustained “by falling into the vines”. They also considered that she was not credible, since she had deliberately lied, in particular about her drug consumption, and that she had changed her version several times.
Furthermore, when the defendants took her to the vineyards, she did not ask to get out of the vehicle. There would therefore have been no constraint. In short, they demand acquittal for everything except banditry.
The verdict will be delivered on Friday.
