A young woman was raped last month in a Paris hospital by another patient, who was under an expulsion order to leave France, her lawyer and sources said on Thursday.
The assault took place during the night of October 27-28 at the Cochin hospital in Paris, where the woman was in emergency care for brain trauma, her lawyer Laura Abecassis told AFP.
The man suspected of carrying out the assault has been arrested but the woman, 34, has also filed a complaint over the danger posed to her life, the lawyer added.
Around 4:00 am, a nurse startled a man in the young woman’s cubicle while he was raping her with his fingers as she slept, according to a source familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named.
He then fled but thanks to the description provided by the nurse and the victim he was arrested an hour later, the source added. French press reports said he was carrying her bank card.
Aged 22, according to the identity document he provided, the man was already known to the police, said the source. He has been jailed and charged with rape.
The man, who had been using multiple identities, is the subject of two expulsion orders to leave France under two different names, a police source told AFP.
His nationality has not been disclosed.
The woman’s complaint could lead prosecutors to seek an investigation into the circumstances in which the assault took place.
“It’s a double trauma for my client — the rape itself and the circumstances. She wants … to understand how these extremely serious acts could have happened like that in a public institution,” Abecassis said.
The Paris hospital service confirmed that a patient had suffered an assault on the night of October 27-28 but would not comment on the ongoing investigation.
