Blockade of high schools: an investigation opened against a police officer accused of sexual assault

A 31-year-old woman reported to the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) that she had been the victim of a sexual assault by a police officer during a demonstration on Thursday in front of a Parisian high school, leading to the opening of a blatant investigation, we learned on Saturday from a source close to the matter.

According to the complaint, the facts occurred Thursday morning in front of the Hélène-Boucher high school (20th arrondissement). The complainant explains that she found herself in a chain of adults who stood between high school students and the police, when the police, shields in front, pushed them to make them move back.

“I hope we can find the policeman”

“A police officer passed his arm between two shields and (...) put his hand between my legs and (...) rubbed hard on it for several seconds,” she recounted in her complaint, explaining that she had not been able to push him away because the adults had made a chain between them by holding each other's arms and was therefore immobilized.

She said she protested and looked at the police officer several times, whom she could not immediately identify. She then tried to do so, with several friends and elected officials who were there, but many police officers did not have their regulatory identification number, she said. “I hope that we can find the police officer and that he will be punished,” declared the complainant, named Cécile.

A Parisian municipal official, Simon Duquerroir, companion of the complainant and who was at her side, wearing the sling, confirms having heard her scream that she was being sexually assaulted: “I pulled her to extract her from the other side,” he said. “My client remains deeply shocked by the facts she suffered, which relate to both sexual violence and police violence against those mobilized, in a context where the difficulty in identifying the agents involved undeniably generates impunity,” declared the plaintiff's lawyer, Me Simon Appriou.