After two weeks of high-tension hearings, the long-awaited verdict was delivered. Former photographer Salim Berrada, accused by 17 women of rape and sexual assault, was sentenced to 18 years of criminal imprisonment by the Paris criminal court. A sentence of 19 years' imprisonment was requested against the man who had been nicknamed the "Tinder rapist", accused of approaching his victims in particular via the dating application. The profile of the 39-year-old man had been targeted on social networks via a call for witnesses which had been widely relayed.
The requested sentence was close to the maximum 20 years incurred, a severity which is justified according to the attorney general Philippe Courroye by the number of complainants who have implicated this former Moroccan computer scientist. “This man is dangerous because he hears and respects nothing,” the magistrate warned on Thursday. The accused has always contested the facts, even asserting that his accusers influenced each other. “Some lie, and for others, I really have doubts,” he declared on the stand Wednesday in front of several complainants, who came in large numbers every day.
“Operating mode”
During the hearing, the president had nevertheless identified a “mode of operation” among the suspect, who reproduced the same pattern with many women: contacting young aspiring models via social networks or dating applications to offer them a photo session at his home, before making them drink and forcing them to have sex.
The attorney general also said he was “certain” that the man drugged most of his victims, via these drinks that he offered them when starting the photo shoot. Traces of substances were detected in nine of the 17 complainants, according to a toxicology expert. He also dissected what he called “the trap of rue Pixérécourt”, the studio in the 20th arrondissement where the former photographer received these women at the time of the events, between 2014 and 2016.
The magistrate also requested a definitive ban on the Moroccan from French territory and registration in the file of perpetrators of sexual offenses, pointing to a risk of repeat offenses. Salim Berrada had already been re-incarcerated and indicted in the past for similar acts, although he had been released under judicial supervision.
Also read “Since then, my life has been a disaster”: at the trial of the “Tinder rapist”, the heartbreaking stories of the victims
For their part, the accused's lawyers pleaded Friday "the impossibility of defending himself" and begged the court to take the time to "doubt his guilt." The suspect found himself “alone” facing these complainants and a “walled court”, so often “annoyed” by his speeches, lamented Me Irina Kratz, believing that her client had been “stuck”. “How can you defend yourself against a woman's words without being seen as indecent? », she was irritated.