The case of a Parisian woman who says she was prepared to have sex and was repeatedly raped by 20 firefighters over a two-year period since she was 13 has divided French society. The case, which has become part of recent uncomfortable conversations between France’s thinking class about the age of consent, incest and exploitation, will be known on Wednesday before France’s highest court. On Sunday, hundreds of women took to the streets of Paris to demand justice and end what they call cultural acceptance of the victims ’guilt and the flagrant rape usually disguised as consent.
The woman, who is now 25 years old and has been dubbed “Julie” by French media, has accused the 20 firefighters at several Paris fire stations of rape after a firefighter named “Pierre” helped her when she suffered a severe anxiety crisis in 2008.
Then, allegedly, Pierre found his contact information in his medical record and began bombarding her with “affectionate messages” that soon became sexual in nature. He says he convinced her to undress during a video call, which he did. He then began passing his phone number to other firefighters who asked him to do the same. She wrote in her diary at the time that she was “terrified and paralyzed by fear” of what was happening.
Three of the woman’s accused firefighters have admitted to having sex with her, sometimes in groups and often in full uniforms. On one occasion, in November 2009, she had been taken to one of the firefighters ’homes when she invited two colleagues, all three of whom raped her in full uniform. All three have been charged with “sexual violence” involving only seven years in prison. None of the men are charged with rape, which carries 20 years in prison.
Firefighters who admit to having sex with the minor insist that it was consensual and that the young teenager at the time had even forced himself to flirt with them. One of the defendants said he had sex with her in a small toilet in a Parisian hospital, but noted that “there were no signs of resistance” or vulnerability on the part of the teenager.
Because France does not have an official age of consent, cases like this are often reduced to the shame of victims while defense attorneys work to show that the victim was somehow dressed seductively or, in this case, acted who gave consent as to undress during a video call.
France has debated for years introducing an age of consent for sex and in 2018 almost passed a law that would make sex with anyone under the age of 15 considered a violation, but the law was not passed after groups of people men would say it would translate into “an assumption of guilt” for men victims of flirtatious women.
The woman’s mother, who has spoken to the press, said she was surprised to learn that her daughter had been sexually exploited. She said in an interview that she had even prepared dessert for Pierre and the other firefighters who had helped the then teenager with his anxiety-induced seizures, which happened so often. Firefighters were called to his home 130 times during the two-year period violations occurred. “I thought he was the last person to do such a thing because I had helped him so many times and I saw the vulnerability he had,” the victim’s mother said, according to an interview published in Guardian.
Groups of women protesting in Paris on Sunday say the case highlights long-standing notions of French society that have allowed sex crimes to go unpunished. “All the stereotypes about rape are in this case: the judges and the psychiatrist say that Julie is a liar, that she consented to sex with all those men and that she lies about rape because it embarrasses her,” said Marjolaine Vignola, advocate for victims. .
On Sunday, Marguerite Stern, of a feminist group the Amazon, took to the streets of Paris. “For ten years they were fighting alone, now thousands of feminists from all over France are joining,” she told reporters in reference to the fact that the victim first accused firefighters a decade ago. “We demand that firefighters be tried for rape and not for ‘sexual rape.’ This culture of misogyny in our courts must end.”