Two French police officers have been detained and suspended after allegedly raping a young woman while she was in custody at a court, the public prosecutor and the police chief confirmed on Thursday.
According to prosecutor Eric Mathais, the woman reported that the assault occurred overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday in Bobigny, a town north of Paris. She had been brought before the Bobigny public prosecutor’s office for “acts of parental neglect.”
The alleged victim is 26 years old, while the accused officers — aged 23 and 35 — are relatively new recruits, a source close to the case revealed on condition of anonymity.
Mathais stated that both officers were being held in custody on Thursday. Paris police prefect Patrice Faure announced on X (formerly Twitter) that he had “immediately suspended” the two men.
Another source familiar with the investigation said the officers had submitted an administrative report outlining their version of events.
Investigation Underway
France’s internal police investigation unit, the IGPN, has launched an inquiry into the case.
In a separate incident, another police officer is set to stand trial next year for allegedly raping a woman inside a police station in the Seine-et-Marne region, also near Paris. The alleged victim, an undocumented Angolan woman, accused the officer of raping her twice in 2023 after she went to the station to file a domestic violence complaint, according to the French daily Libération.
France has recently witnessed a series of high-profile rape cases that have ignited national debate on issues of consent. On Wednesday, the French parliament passed a landmark bill defining rape as any non-consensual sexual act — a move supporters described as a shift from “a culture of rape to a culture of consent.”