Two police officers have been found guilty of raping a Canadian woman at a renowned Paris police headquarters in 2014.<\/p>\n
They were both jailed for seven years by a Paris court, three years after the case was thrown out in another trial.<\/p>\n
Emily Spanton, 39, waived her right to anonymity to pursue the case.<\/p>\n
She told the trial she had been invited to tour the police HQ after meeting a group of officers in a bar, but when she went there she was gang-raped.<\/p>\n
The headquarters, based at 36 Quai des Orf\u00e8vres in Paris, is legendary for its role in French crime literature and film.<\/p>\n
The two men, Nicolas Redouane and Antoine Quirin – former members of France’s elite BRI anti-gang force – had always maintained their innocence. They argued Ms Spanton had consented to sex.<\/p>\n
The court was convinced by the “consistent statements of the victim” and by scientific and technical evidence provided by DNA and phone records, the president of the court said.<\/p>\n
The case has received wide coverage in France, which like many countries has been debating sexual assault and the Me Too movement.<\/p>\n
Ms Spanton’s lawyer, Sophie Obadia, told reporters the verdict showed that a victim’s private life should not be a consideration in rape cases.<\/p>\n
“Finally, in France, it is accepted that a woman who has been raped does not have to justify her private life,” she said.<\/p>\n
“The court considered that Ms. Spanton had not lied, that she is not a person who lies, and based its decision on objective elements of this case, not the word of one person against the word of the accused.”<\/p>\n
Ms Spanton, the daughter of a Canadian ex-detective, had been in an Irish pub late at night on 22 April 2014 when she met three police officers from the “36”, as the historic judicial police building is known.<\/p>\n
They offered to show her the HQ and at 00:40 that night CCTV showed her walking in with both men after smoking a cigarette. What happened next on the fifth floor has been disputed ever since.<\/p>\n
By 02:00 she was in a state of shock. Ms Spanton said she was raped in two offices, involving three men in total. She has never identified the third man.<\/p>\n
Medical examinations showed she was drunk at the time of the rape. The two officers have always disputed her accusations and a lawyer for one of the men said that DNA traces did not prove rape.<\/p>\n
However, a guard on duty told the trial that he saw her shortly afterwards in tears, saying that she had been raped by several officers. He then alerted his superiors.<\/p>\n
The case was initially thrown out, but the Paris prosecutor and Ms Spanton took it to appeal and the trial took place almost five years later.<\/p>\n
The two officers will have to pay the victim \u20ac20,000 (\u00a317,500; $22,900) in damages. Both men can still appeal.<\/p>\n
Ms Spanton did not glance at either of the two accused while the judgment was being read, reports say.<\/p>\n
Her Toronto-based lawyer Howard Rubel told the BBC: “My client is of course very relieved with the verdict and is glad that she withstood the very arduous process that led to today.<\/p>\n
“She is glad that she did her part in allowing justice to unfold.”<\/p>\n
Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"