To make it appear that he was part of the police, he showed his victims a flashing light, a pistol and handcuffs hidden in the glove box of his car. A 36-year-old man who posed as a police officer to achieve his ends was found guilty of several rapes against women engaged in prostitution in Cannes and neighboring towns.
The Alpes-Maritimes Assize Court sentenced him Monday evening, in Nice, to eighteen years in prison, we learned 20 minutes with the different parties. The prosecution had requested twenty years, with a two-thirds security period.
“You are under arrest but if you want, we can make arrangements”
Five women, aged between 19 and 23 at the time of the events, accused the thirty-year-old. They all described the same modus operandi: making contact on an escort-girls site, meeting this fake cop in the car, and proposing an “arrangement”, a sexual relationship, to escape from hypothetical prosecutions. “He told me a story that the prefect had set up an anti-escort girls brigade. He told me about a fine of 100,000 euros. He added: “you are under arrest but if you want, we can make arrangements,” testified one of the victims, cited in Nice morning.
In the box, the accused defended himself by asserting that the women had consented. The court did not see it that way and sentenced him to eighteen years in prison. “This sentence is recognition of victim status for my client, who will finally be able to rebuild herself! We are satisfied to have been heard,” reacted to 20 minutes Me Sophie Jonquet, the lawyer for one of the plaintiffs.