Four French police officers have been placed under arrest on suspicion of raping a Canadian tourist at the Parisian equivalent of Scotland Yard, reports The Times.
The allegations threaten to add a further stain to the already tarnished image of the France’s national police force.
The 34-year-old woman from Toronto filed a criminal lawsuit alleging she was attacked after meeting the officers - a captain, a lieutenant, a major and a brigadier - in an Irish pub on the Left Bank of the Seine on Tuesday.
She says she struck up a conversation with them because her father works for the police in Canada.
Her lawsuit says she followed the French officers when they offered to show her around 36, Quai des Orfèvres, the headquarters of the Paris police on the other side of the river.
A police constable guarding the building said she appeared ‘joyful and jolly’ when she went in. But she was ‘crying, shocked and staggered’ when she emerged several hours later.
The tourist, who arrived in Paris this month, told traffic police officers stationed near the headquarters that she had been raped.
They said she was in a state of near hysteria at the time. The woman was accompanied to a police station in the north of Paris to make a statement.
Her claims strike at the heart of the French police institution - Quai des Orfevres being its most emblematic site and the base of Superintendent Jules Maigret, the fictional detective created Georges Simenon, France’s hallowed 20th century crime writer.
The four officers under arrest are members of the elite Research and Intervention Brigade, which specialises in fighting organised crime. All deny having raped the women or having sexual relations with her. They said she had asked to be shown around the French police headquarters after a drinking session with them in the Irish pub.
The General Inspection of the National Police, which investigates crimes allegedly committed by officers, is carrying out an inquiry into the allegations. The unit is known internally as les boeufs-carottes (the beef-carrots) because its investigators are reputed to let officers under suspicion stew in their own juice until they confess.
The homes of the four officers alleged to have raped the holidaymaker were raided today after they had been placed in custody. A judge is likely to decide today whether to place them under formal investigation, the equivalent of charging a suspect in the UK
Le Monde said a medical examination of the woman had confirmed her claim to have had sexual intercourse. It said she had suffered an injury which suggested that the sex had been nonconsensual. However, a police source said the full results of the medical examination would not be known until today at the earliest.
Bernard Cazeneuve, the interior minister, said: “I will take all the sanctions necessary...if the facts are established. I want our legal system and the General Inspection of the National Police to pursue this inquiry so that the truth is known.”
Read more of this report from The Times.