Will the National Bar Council take up the matter? This Monday, a supervisor of the Health prison in Paris, surprised a lawyer and her client in the midst of a sexual frenzy in a visiting room, reports The Parisian. While on duty, the officer was intrigued by the movement of shadows behind the glass door of a parlor. In order to ensure the safety of the lawyer and her client, he opened the door and stumbled upon the scene of a sexual relationship between the two protagonists.
If the relationship was well agreed between the two adults, it still poses two problems. Sexual relations are indeed permitted for detainees, but only in family living units, not in visiting rooms. Because the detainees are not searched at the end of their interview with their counsel, only a pat-down is carried out. If the proximity between the prisoner and the visitor is too strong, there could be the introduction of a telephone, a weapon or a drug.
Possible sanctions
Then, the too intimate relationship between a detainee and his lawyer poses an ethical problem for the latter and could undermine the dignity of the profession. This, even if the two parties are concubines as it seems to be the case.
Both the detainee and the lawyer face penalties. The detainee, a businessman, could be sentenced to a few days in a disciplinary unit according to a prison source cited by The Parisian. The lawyer could be subject to a sanction by her order, which can range from reprimand to expungement.