So “fat whore” would not be a sexist insult. Or rather for the Paris police court, with its astonishing decision, which has just acquitted a police officer who had called a woman who filed a complaint for sexual assault a “whore” in a voice message he had left her by mistake. “The president of the police court considered that the fact, for a police officer, of saying to a sexually assaulted woman ‘fat whore’, was not a sexist insult,” the AFP told AFP. lawyer for the plaintiff, Me Arié Alimi.
The facts date back to February 2022: the victim had filed a first complaint in a Paris police station for “sexual assault while drunk”. A judicial police officer then left her a message on her answering machine for her to complete her complaint. Thinking he had hung up, we heard him complaining about the situation then, after a silence of a few seconds, adding: “She really is a whore. […] Damn, she refuses to confront the whore. As if by chance. Actually it was just to break his balls, I’m sure. […] Damn, you big whore,” before properly hanging up the receiver.
A “fat whore” spoken to oneself would not be an insult
Were these insults uttered to his colleagues, which would have constituted a “non-public insult on grounds of sex”, or to himself, “like when one gets angry at a cyclist in a car”, what was the policeman arguing? During the hearing at the beginning of December, the prosecution invited the court to answer this question “in its soul and conscience”. He had suggested that, in the first case, the police officer should be convicted but exempted from punishment, given his exemplary career, and that in the second case he should be acquitted.
The young woman did not hide her disappointment, saying she felt “crushed”. This case had sparked numerous criticisms of the treatment by the police of victims of sexual violence. The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, initially considered that the police officer “no longer had his place” in the police force. “I had to beg the minister not to dismiss me,” the defendant explained to the court.
The victim will appeal
Suspended for more than four months, the police officer was finally sanctioned with a professional transfer, then in June 2023 with a ban on contact with the victims and those accused. At the hearing, he denied being “sexist or misogynist” and said he was “very sorry that the victim had heard these unfortunate comments”.
“The judicial institution continues to protect the police. My client wishes to appeal to change judicial customs,” indicates Maître Arié Alimi.