It is an extraordinary case, in terms of the number of victims and the systematization of the modus operandi, that the Paris departmental criminal court is preparing to judge from Monday March 18, and until the end of the month. Salim Berrada, 38, will appear before five professional magistrates for 13 rapes and four sexual assaults that he is accused of having committed between 2014 and 2016.
The one who was nicknamed in the media “the Tinder rapist” is accused of having posed as a fashion photographer to meet women online, and of having applied an almost identical modus operandi, in a “form of industrialization”, according to the indictment order consulted by franceinfo. This document describes, over 80 pages, the system “pervert” that the accused is suspected of having set up to attract his victims.
“The feeling of no longer controlling your muscles”
The first complaint in this case was filed in April 2015 by an American student, Ashley*, then on a university exchange in France. She says she met Salim Berrada on a social network that puts photographers and models in contact. The two first chat via Facebook, then he arranges to meet her for a photo shoot. She is “enthusiastic, expecting to be photographed a little naked, but without vulgarity”, according to his testimony in the charging order. But after drinking two or three glasses of wine, she suddenly becomes dizzy: everything begins to spin around her. Salim Berrada then changes his behavior and becomes more aggressive, testifies the young woman. Without being able to remember how, she finds herself “completely naked on the couch.”
According to his account, he then puts his penis in front of her face and demands oral sex from her. She refuses and he then penetrates her vagina with his fingers, despite her protests. He then forces her to masturbate. She does so, terrified, and still unable to move. She finally manages to escape by “bumping into each other with every step”with “the feeling of no longer controlling your muscles”. Then manages to get home with the help of a person she met on the subway.
When Ashley filed a complaint, a little more than three months after the events, the medical-judicial unit which examined her noted that she was withdrawn, refused social interactions and had stopped her studies. The psychiatrist who examined him prescribed 30 days of ITT. Toxicological analysis also shows that it could have been chemically subjected to antihistamines, with sedative effects increased tenfold by alcohol consumption. Which could explain the torpor in which the young woman says she found herself.
A first judicial investigation opened in 2016
In February 2016, another young woman, Elise*, filed a complaint in turn, to denounce a rape committed in Salim Berrada’s studio. His story is very similar to that of the first complainant: he offers to pose for him, insists that she drink a glass of vodka upon her arrival. When it’s time to move on to the photos, he forces her to remove her bra and tries to touch her breasts. Faced with her protests, he throws himself on her, forcing her to undergo and perform several sexual acts, despite her tears and screams. She tries to escape, but he catches her.
Elise files a complaint the next day. The medicojudicial unit which collected his testimony noted traumatic injuries, bruises on both of his thighs, his wrists and his left forearm, as well as scratches on his back. The psychiatric examination shows that she is in a state of post-traumatic stress.
Two other victims will follow. They filed a complaint in May and October 2016, always describing the same circumstances: an alcoholic photo shoot, unusual physical sensations and a rape. Salim Berrada was placed in police custody in October 2016, and a judicial investigation was opened immediately. In front of the investigating judge, he speaks of consensual sexual acts and denies having introduced any medicinal substance into the glasses of the complainants. He assures that his victims turn against him because they regret, in hindsight, having given in to his advances.
During the investigation, Salim Berrada declared “that in two or three years, he met between 200 and 300 girls, maybe even more, and that there were only four girls who reacted that way”. He also states “needing sex every other day, and changing partners all the time”.
New complaints after online denunciation
In 2016, two of the four victims publicly denounced his actions in publications on Facebook and Instagram, in order to prevent other young women from crossing his path. They cite Salim Berrada by name and their posts are widely relayed in the modeling world.
From then on, numerous complaints poured in: victims recognized him in the photos circulating. They are often very young women, sometimes minors. All describe a similar system of predation with devastating consequences on their lives. A student thus ended her preparation for Fine Arts, subsequently drawing “always the same things: a woman having her breasts grabbed or men grabbing women”, describes the accusation.
Another young woman began to consume in a way “important” alcohol and cannabis. Following her filing of a complaint, around twenty months after the events, the rape she denounced came back to her mind in a particularly violent way: she then felt a sort of “descent into hell”leading her to separate from her partner and quit her job.
In more than half of the complainants, toxicological analyzes revealed traces of chemicals corresponding to the material period. “It was either MDMA, or antihistamine molecules present in over-the-counter cold treatments, or a sedative and an anxiolytic for one of them,” specify the judges in their order.
The first psychiatric assessment carried out on Salim Berrada concluded that he had a personality type “narcissistic” with a “manipulative tendency which may suggest perverse type of functioning”. The second expertise goes in the same direction, establishing an egocentric profile, “without any regard for the women seduced and immediately abandoned.”
A new indictment in 2023
The 30-year-old was placed in pre-trial detention in October 2016. After several requests for release, he was released from prison under judicial supervision in 2019, awaiting his trial. But despite this status, which requires him to report to the police station every week, he is accused of having continued to crack down on dating applications.
Rania* thus testified to BFMTV, claiming to have been raped by Salim Berrada in March 2023, after having exchanged with him on the dating application Tinder, where he had registered under the name of Samuel. That evening, says the young woman, they met at her home in Marseille. They shared a bottle of wine he had brought. A few minutes later, Rania felt unwell and only had “bribes” of memories, of this man “naked”of his “insistence” to have sex and “chilling memory of seeing him above her, penetrating her”she detailed to BFMTV.
The young woman filed a complaint for aggravated rape in June 2023. On the basis of this new testimony and several others, the Paris prosecutor’s office launched new investigations for acts likely to have been committed between 2021 and 2023, as well as ‘in 2013. A new judicial investigation was opened on July 13, the Paris prosecutor’s office told franceinfo. Placed in police custody, Salim Berrada was indicted for “rape with administration of a substance to the victim, without her knowledge, to impair her discernment or control of her actions” and again placed in pre-trial detention. These facts, the investigation of which is ongoing, will not be judged during the trial which opens on Monday.
*All first names have been changed.