Eure: a gynecologist sentenced to 5 years in prison for rape and sexual assault on patients

A gynecologist was sentenced Thursday evening by the Eure criminal court to five years in prison for rape and sexual assault committed in 2018 and 2020 on patients. The doctor was convicted of sexual assault for touching a patient and for having performed an “unnecessary” examination on another, namely digital penetration, therefore rape according to the law, during a consultation for a renewal of the contraceptive pill.

The attorney general, Aude Helbert, had requested a criminal sentence of six to eight years in prison, deploring that the doctor does not, or very little, question himself and citing a risk of recidivism. “I am sincerely sorry if my attitude caused confusion (...) I am innocent,” said the gynecologist before the court retired to deliberate.

The first victim explained on the stand that she had suffered “caresses on the thighs” and the clitoris from the doctor, without gloves, and pinching on the nipples, attacks which had caused her hasty departure from the office. “When we do bad things, we have to take responsibility,” she declared during the hearing on Wednesday.

Nearly 80 patients (out of several thousand in total) of the gynecologist were questioned during the investigation, revealing no other rapes but several testimonies of inappropriate comments, caresses between the thighs, touching without gloves, at least one attempt to kiss on the mouth and offers to show his patients "how to have sexual pleasure".

The practitioner denied the facts during the entire investigation as well as in court, justifying himself by medical actions and questions necessary according to him in view of the requests and problems of his patients. Described as a good doctor by his former heads of department and colleagues, he had already been the subject of proceedings before the Order of Physicians for a tubal ligation without consent. The investigating magistrate referred the case to court, justifying, among other things, that “two women who did not know each other filed a complaint two years apart for acts of a sexual nature, citing a fairly similar modus operandi”.

The psychiatrists and psychologists who examined the complainants did not find any pathologies that could harm the credibility of their stories; their condition was even considered consistent with post-traumatic stress.