The facts had sparked a national debate, and the reaction of the judiciary had triggered an avalanche of comments, in particular from the side of feminist associations. This November 2, the case of the 11-year-old schoolgirl, who accuses a man 17 years older than him of rape, returns to court, this time before the criminal court of Val-d’Oise, and behind closed doors.
Let us recall the facts, which occurred on April 24, 2017. That day, the schoolgirl was sitting in a park near her home, in Montmagny (Val-d’Oise). She is chatting with a 28-year-old man, who has already approached her two weeks earlier. The man, father of a 9-year-old child, invites him to follow her to his apartment building.
In a stairwell, at the request of the man, she performs oral sex on him. Interrupted by the caretaker, they go to the apartment where he lives with his family. A report with vaginal penetration takes place, without violence. Once out of the house, he tells her not to tell anyone. She immediately calls her mother and tells her that she was raped.
Can we consent at 11?
Until then, it could have been a banal story of sexual violence against a minor, except that the Pontoise prosecution considers that these facts do not correspond to the criminal definition of rape. He reclassifies the offense as sexual assault committed on a 15-year-old minor, judging that the minor was consenting. But can we consent at 11?
At the time of the events, the man said that the schoolgirl was consenting and that he did not know her age. For her part, she assured that she had given her her age from their first meeting and had insisted the second time that they had met by showing her her school report. She also explained that she did not run away or express her refusal to have sex, out of fear.
“We consider that a child is a priori consenting”
The case triggered the mobilization of many feminist and child protection associations, precisely because of the reaction of the prosecution. We deplore a “French specificity”. Asked in Mediapart, Emmanuelle Piet, president of the feminist collective against rape, judges the decision of justice shameful. “For the moment, in France, after 4 and a half years, we consider that a child is a priori consenting. »
During the trial in February 2018, the recommendation of the prosecution was not followed. The court declares itself incompetent and requests the opening of a new investigation. And at the end of an investigation of more than three years, the magistrates considered that if there was neither violence nor physical constraint, the “moral constraint” and the “surprise” are established and justify the dismissal of the accused for rape.
Criminal law is not retroactive
So here we are, with a major change in the law in the meantime, which national mobilization has made possible. There is now an age of consent threshold, which was set at 15 in April 2021. Since then, an adult cannot rely on the sexual consent of a child if they are under 15 (or younger). 18 in the event of incest). But this change cannot be taken into account by the judges, the criminal law not being retroactive. The accused faces twenty years of criminal imprisonment.
The verdict is expected Friday.