A French police officer has been ordered to pay 1,000 euros, or approximately $1,000 after he described a woman who filed a sexual assault complaint as a “whore”, a source close to the case said on Saturday.
In a case that sparked outrage in France, the woman, then 34, filed a complaint at a Paris police station in February 2022, saying she had been assaulted in the street after several drinks on a night out.
A male police officer later called her on the phone to ask her to come back and finish the paperwork. After he left a message — thinking he had hung up — he started insulting her, calling her a “whore” three times.
The case sparked indignation from activists, who said it reflected how many police officers treated victims of sexual violence.Â
French statistics in 2017 showed that over 80,000 adult women face rape or attempted rape every year in the country but only 10% file a complaint, the Associated Press reported.Â
But like many countries across the globe, the #MeToo movement prompted social and governmental changes in recent years. The number of reported cases of sexual violence has more than doubled from 2016 to 2023, according to French newspaper Le Monde.
In a rare comment, France’s then interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, said the 33-year-old officer should be fired.
The policeman was charged with “non-public insult because of gender”. But a French court cleared the policeman of criminal liability in January 2024. During the trial, the officer apologized and said he had to beg Darmanin to keep his job.
The woman then appealed against the decision, asking judicial authorities to recognize the officer’s misconduct.
On Jan. 30, the Paris Court of Appeal sided with the woman and said the policeman should pay her 1,000 euros, according to a copy of the ruling obtained by AFP.
The police officer repeatedly apologized for his remarks, but insisted that they were merely an expression of his annoyance at procedural irregularities.
In its ruling, the court found that “it cannot be disputed that the term ‘la pute’ (whore) repeated several times is offensive and was, in view of the context, aimed at (the plaintiff) because of her sex”.
The woman’s lawyer Arie Alimi said it was necessary “to go all the way” to draw attention to the bias “towards victims of sexual and gender-based violence and towards victims of police officers”.
A lawyer for the police officer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the country’s most recent high-profile case of sexual violence, the former husband of Gisèle Pelicot, who admitted to drugging and raping her repeatedly for almost a decade and inviting dozens of other men to assault her as well, was found guilty of aggravated rape.Â
Forty-nine men whom Dominique Pelicot brought into his home to assault his wife were also convicted as part of the same landmark trial.
Pelicot’s case triggered protests across France, and there was hope among some demonstrators that the case could lead to changes in controversial French laws governing sexual consent.