The “predator” had abused a Ukrainian refugee on the street, after having lured her to his home in Montpellier

Le prévenu abordait des femmes seules à la gare Saint-Roch. Midi Libre – JEAN MICHEL MART

A Senegalese man was sentenced to a one-month suspended prison sentence for sexually assaulting a young woman he approached at the Saint-Roch train station before luring her into the apartment he was subletting.

On August 18, a young Ukrainian woman who had left her country because of the war filed a complaint with the police station after being sexually assaulted on the night of August 16-17 in Montpellier.

Having come with the prospect of accommodation, a plan that had not come to fruition, she had found herself on the street. At the Saint-Roch train station, she had been approached by Vincent, a Senegalese man in his forties who had offered to rent her a room. Wary, she had refused. He had contacted her again shortly after, sending her messages. She had gone to his place twice, briefly.

But one rainy day, exhausted and suffering from a fever, she returned to spend the night. Her host, who claimed to help people in difficulty, took the opportunity to enter her room, the door of which was unlocked.

Twice during the night, he forced her to touch her buttocks and breasts. The woman pushed him away several times, before he fell asleep next to her.

When she woke up, he did it again, preventing her from leaving as she wanted. The man held her by the arms, grabbed her thighs before throwing her on the bed. She screamed for help. “It went on for two hours, he said he was going to kill me”, she told the police.

A relative of Vincent was in the apartment that night. He confirmed that the tenant had held the young woman by the arm. He stressed that he had intervened several times to calm him down. “He would have raped her if I hadn't been there”, he had even said.

The young woman was able to escape around 2pm. The doctor found bruises and scratches consistent with his story.

Her attacker was arrested the next day, drunk and slurring his words. “It's true that I was able to hold her by the arms, but that's because I didn't want her to leave in the rain”, he told the police.

“A long-standing and severe addiction to alcohol”

“I was too drunk that night, I remember holding her hands. If I did anything, I am truly sorry,”, he told the court. “But I didn't mean to rape her,”.

“Yet she testified that you had propositioned her for sex before,”, President Parisi observed. “I don't remember”, replied the defendant.

The expert noted at his home “an old and severe addiction to alcohol with two to four liters of beer consumed per day, but no particular disorders.”

“I have been an alcoholic since 2008, admitted the Senegalese. My body has gotten used to it. Before the events, I had consumed whisky, strong beers and red wine. I sometimes lose my memory afterwards. That night, I went out to get some alcohol from a late-night grocery store.” This is denied by the friend who was staying at the accommodation.

"He didn't seem to be drunk,", the victim also said, speaking through an interpreter. "In the morning at 9 o'clock, it's hard to believe that he was still drunk,", observes the prosecutor, who requested an 18-month suspended prison sentence.

In France since 2008, Vincent has an eight-year-old child who lives with his mother in Brittany. After a pneumothorax in 2017, followed by depression, he joined his cousin in Montpellier last October.

“She is terrified and doesn't know anyone”

“Mr. was looking for prey, he only spoke to single homeless women at the Saint-Roch train station, stressed Me Guillaume, the victim's lawyer. She fell into the trap of this predator who has already lured victims to his home. He appears benevolent but when night falls, he gets into the bed and insists."

She specifies that the young Ukrainian “had a job and a family in her country. Today, she is terrified. She doesn't know anyone in Montpellier and can no longer trust anyone."

"Without this accommodation rented by his cousin to his brother, which he will have to leave in a few days, he would also have difficulty finding accommodation, argued Mr. Mendel, the defendant's lawyer. He has a residence permit, and he is not a predator, even if I do not dispute the sexual offense."

Vincent was sentenced to one year in prison, suspended. He is required to seek treatment, work or receive training, and compensate the victim and the Treasury. He is also prohibited from appearing in Montpellier or contacting the victim. He will be registered in the file of perpetrators of sexual offences (Fijais) and will have to compensate the civil party up to 1,000 euros for moral damages.

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