It was the end of a summer day like Marie* has experienced hundreds. This Monday, with a friend, the young 23-year-old Marseillaise took advantage of the ambient heat to bask in a swimsuit on the rocks that border Petit Nice, a high bathing spot located in the seventh arrondissement of Marseille. “We notice a group of police officers with other people,” says Marie. We hear them talking about the story of photos but we don’t really understand what is going on. One of them, in civilian clothes, beckons me to come and see him. And he explains to me that he caught a boy taking pictures, including pictures of me that he found in his phone and that he had shared on Messenger. I was in a bathing suit and he took a picture of my butt. He added that he had sent these photos to a group or to someone. »
Passing by the seaside, as reported Provence, the police have indeed arrested this 42-year-old man, suspected of having photographed the private parts of at least five bathers, including Marie and her friend. At the time, the young Marseillaise struggles to realize what happened a few minutes earlier. “I think he must have been right next to it, but we didn’t notice him,” she breathes. My friend recognized his shoes when he was near the police. »
“We feel dirty”
The police assure the young girl of the deletion of the photos, but ask her if she intends to file a complaint. “At first, I said no,” says Marie. But when I went back to settle down with my girlfriend, I saw that they were calling other girls, next to me, who were also affected. They call them one by one to tell them the same thing. We learn that one of the concerned is 17 years old. She is therefore a minor. And that’s where it clicked. »
And to confide: “It took me a long time to understand. And we feel a little dirty. These photos, we don’t know at all where they will end up… I was in a bathing suit, fortunately, but I think of the girls around me who were topless. I put myself on my stomach for five minutes, and that was enough for an old pervert to take a picture of my buttocks…”
“We don’t have to be careful”
In shock, the young woman calls her mother. “She told me that at the same time, I was in a swimsuit… I got angry. A speech like that is not possible. This is proof that this stuff is becoming too normalized. But you must not let yourself go. You can’t even sunbathe in peace without getting bored. At the police station, the policeman who registers her complaint leaves her, advising her to be careful. “We told him that we didn’t have to be careful,” Marie is indignant.
At the exit of the police station, a man bothers the young woman. “He repeated to me insistently: ‘You are charming’, when I just wanted to be quiet. Two minutes later, another man pushed and insulted me…”. She is indignant: “That’s why I filed a complaint, so that this kind of behavior in Marseille is no longer trivialized. I have heard of so many things about beaches. There’s even this recently launched app. It’s a good thing, but it shouldn’t exist! The city of Marseille has been testing an anti-harassment application on the beaches since this summer.
On her social networks, a few hours after filing a complaint, Marie posts a story to tell her misadventure, and raise awareness among the young girls around her. “A high school friend replied to me by telling me that the same thing had happened to her, a week earlier, in the same place…” The man was placed this Monday evening in police custody, for “attack on intimacy of private life by fixing the image of a person without his consent”.
*The first name has been changed at the request of the person concerned.