It’s a buried memory dating from 1987, almost forgotten, which suddenly resurfaced. And who came to shake up Sylvie*’s present. On February 27, 2018, the press announced the arrest of Dino Scala. The 57-year-old man is then suspected of being the “Sambre rapist”, a sexual predator whose hunting ground extends along this river which crosses the Franco-Belgian border and the Avesnois bocage. , in the north. This worker, who works for Jeumont Electric, admits in police custody to having raped or sexually assaulted dozens of women over thirty years. He often acted in the early morning, with his face hidden, and attacked his victims from behind, sometimes immobilizing them with cords.
Upon hearing the news of this arrest, Sylvie* is disturbed. She thinks back to that cold morning in January 1987. To this man who attacked her around 7 a.m., while she was going to take the bus, in Aulnoye-Aymeries, to go to high school, in Avesnes-sur-Helpe. He too came from behind, his face partly hidden under a cap. Then aged 17, she managed to flee and filed a complaint. The police officers who thought that his attacker was going to do it again tried to find him. In vain. And the following days, Sylvie went to class with a lump in her stomach.
Files dismissed a little quickly
The procedure, location, time, etc. Thirty-one years later, Sylvie “understands immediately that Dino Scala was her attacker, she is convinced of it”, confides to 20 minutes his lawyer, Me Emmanuel Riglaire. About a month and a half ago, she decided to contact the Lille criminal lawyer to tell him this story that she had until then kept to herself. The trauma of this attack “is still very present in her,” he continues.
Since then, another woman has indicated to the Lille judicial police that she had also been the victim of a sexual assault in 1987, in Aulnoye-Aymeries. She made “a possible rapprochement with Dino Scala” after the broadcast of a report in Seven to eight on TF1 and the series Sambre on France 2, said Valenciennes prosecutor Christelle Dumont.
The justice system is studying these two new reports which it could possibly join to the ongoing judicial investigation concerning the “Sambre rapist”. Dino Scala, was sentenced in July 2022 to twenty years of criminal imprisonment, with a two-thirds security period, for a series of 54 rapes, attempted rapes and assaults or attempted sexual assaults. But the list of his victims could still grow. Following his trial, an investigating judge was contacted in March 2023 to re-examine around fifteen acts committed between 1988 and 2009. Files dismissed somewhat quickly by the police officers who were investigating Dino Scala at the time but which could finally bear his signature.
A “very important black figure”
“We know there are plenty of other victims. I am convinced that it started before 1988. Dino Scala himself spoke of attacks whose victims were never identified,” explains Me Riglaire. But, he adds, “some will always leave it all under the rug. At the time, the mentality was not the same. And some parents of these women put the seriousness of the facts into perspective.” There are also those who “in the meantime got married and never told their husbands about it”.
“The black figure of Dino Scala’s victims is very significant,” also assures Me Caty Richard**, who defended several of them during his trial. The criminal lawyer believes that there are two categories of women who could still come forward to denounce an attack: “first there are all those who have never filed a complaint, who have not dared or who have felt guilty. Some also tried at the time to persuade themselves that the facts were not so serious. However, a large number of them still suffer significant psychological repercussions today. »
“She can express herself quietly”
The others “may have filed a complaint at the time”. “But these attacks were largely minimized by the police. Often, the facts were reclassified differently, as theft or attempted theft with violence. His modus operandi sometimes made an objective analysis of his intentions complicated. Only they know that what they suffered was much more serious. » To all these silent victims, “the trial of Dino Scala may have opened their eyes”, analyzes Me Richard.
Sylvie carefully followed the progress of the case, from the arrest of the “Sambre rapist” to his trial. “She saw that it had worked well, even for other women whose files had been lost or whose facts had been poorly qualified legally at the time,” explains Me Riglaire. “She saw that the justice system took care of them and listened to them, that he had been convicted. Him behind bars, she can now express herself peacefully. » The words of a woman determined today to seek justice for the teenager she was. And who hopes to obtain compensation in the future, during a possible new trial for Dino Scala.
*The first name has been changed
** “Crimes, offenses and broken lives”, by Caty Richard (with Catherine Siguret), January 2024, Albin Michel editions