Fire Law Blog Fire Service and Public Safety Legal Issues Blog by Curt Varone
Six Paris firefighters who battled the Notre Dame Cathedral fire last month are facing possible criminal rape charges following an incident involving a 20-year old Scandinavian tourist last weekend at their station.
According to news reports, the female victim, a student from Norway, met an off-duty Paris firefighter in a bar. She told police she had consensual sex with the one firefighter at the firehouse, but was later raped by the others. Quoting from the Mirror: ‘She had met an officer in a bar, and agreed to sex with him, and he is not a suspect. He bought the woman back to his fire station and that is where the multiple attacks took place.’
The incident took place at the Plaisance fire station, less than three miles from Notre Dame. Fire stations in Paris are considerably larger than our stations here in the US and house multiple engines, ladders, ambulances, and assorted response vehicles. It is not uncommon for stations to have ten to fifteen pieces of apparatus and a low-rise apartment building built in where the firefighters and their families live. Paris firefighters are members of the French military.
The firefighters have not been formally charged with a crime, but are considered to be “assisted witnesses” as the investigation continues. The men could be charged with rape or failing to prevent a crime. They have been relieved of duty with the Paris Fire Brigade.
