In October 2022, Dominique P. was taken from his cell in the Baumettes prison in Marseille. The pensioner had been in pretrial detention there for two years, as part of the investigation into the dozens of rapes committed, by him or by strangers, on his wife, whom he had previously drugged. Two investigators from the criminal brigade came from Paris to question him, at the request of an investigating judge from the brand new “cold cases” unit in Nanterre. In the mass of unsolved files she inherited, she found that the DNA found on the shoe of a woman, the victim of an attempted rape in 1999, was that of Dominique P.
Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers Accused of drugging his wife so that she could be raped by more than 50 men, Dominique P. faces his judges
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Estella B. was at the time a young real estate agent in Seine-et-Marne. On May 11, 1999, in Villeparisis, while she was showing an apartment to a man who had come to the agency that same day, he strangled her, placed a box cutter under her neck, forced her to lie on her stomach, tied her hands behind her back, placed a compress soaked in ether over her mouth to put her to sleep, took off her shoes and lowered her pants. The victim, unconscious, then came to, managed to free herself and make her attacker flee.
In Marseille, in October 2022, facing investigators from the criminal brigade, Dominique P. initially claims to have no connection with this case. During the second interrogation, the police tell him that his DNA was found on one of the victim’s shoes and the carpet in the Villeparisis apartment, but he persists in denying it. “I’ll tell you the truthhe announces at the very beginning of the third interrogation. Compared to this young woman who had to grow up and who is questioning herself. That’s me.
Also read the survey: Article reserved for our subscribers “She’s his wife, he can do whatever he wants with her”: how Dominique P. delivered his wife, whom he drugged, to be raped by at least 51 men
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“I can’t tell you”
Dominique P., who was 46 at the time, recounts having had “a drive” passing the real estate agency where Estella B. worked. But he refuses to talk about attempted rape.
“What would have happened if she hadn’t come loose?he is asked.
– I don’t know.
– You were still well on your way to raping her.
– I can’t tell you.”
“I didn’t plan on having a relationship with her”he then told the investigating judge, asserting that he had “just the intention to immobilize it (…)maybe to watch it ». Which does not prevent him from being charged with attempted rape with a weapon.
Investigators are linking this case to another, even older one: the rape and murder of Sophie Narme on December 4, 1991 in Paris, in circumstances that had disturbing similarities with the Estella B case. The choice of victim: Sophie Narme was also a young real estate agent. The modus operandi: the young woman was raped and killed while she was showing an apartment to a man who had introduced himself under a false name, who strangled her, placed her on her stomach, tied her hands behind her back and made her inhale ether and who used a bladed weapon. Sophie Narme was injured by a knife.
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