A migrant known to French authorities for a litany of criminal acts, including incestuous sexual assault, is sitting in pre-trial detention after having been arrested and charged with committing an unspeakably barbaric rape against a 29-year-old woman in the city of Cherbourg-en-Cotentin.
According to the victim, the savage assault, which took place on August 4th, began when 18-year-old Oumar N. broke into the female victim’s apartment in the city center. He then proceeded to beat her up, and raped her several times, including with a 75-centimeter broomstick handle, before callously leaving her for dead, the Paris-based newspaper Le Figaro reports.
The victim, after being discovered by police, was rushed to the hospital where doctors immediately placed in her a medically induced coma before treating her for life-threatening injuries, including “perforation of the colon, small intestine, peritoneum, diaphragm, and pneumothorax” as well as “rib fractures and high risk of septic shock.” As of Sunday, August 12th, it remained unclear whether the victim would survive.
The extraordinarily severe injuries that the victim had sustained—combined with the thought of the unimaginable suffering she must have endured— traumatized members of the medical staff who treated her to such an extent that the hospital set up a psychological unit to deal with their own trauma.
“No empathy”
Days after the merciless attack occurred, Oumar N., who’s currently under investigation for sexual assault against his own sister, was arrested by police, who had pulled one of his fingerprints from the scene of the crime. The fingerprint at the victim’s home was further corroborated by the geolocation of the suspect’s mobile telephone at the time of the torturous assault.
Police, who say Oumar N. failed to show a “hint of empathy” when he confessed to the crime during his interrogation, also noted that “rarely have investigators seen such a horrific case.” The migrant “showed absolutely no emotion or empathy for the victim. He was cold throughout police custody,” said a source close to the case.
The perpetrator faces life in prison after the public prosecutor’s office brought forth charges of “rape combined with torture or acts of barbarism” against him.
Public reactions
Instead of expressing horror, outrage, and indignation, left-liberal leaders in France have conveyed anxiety that the case could be ‘exploited’ by the right wing.
One of the left’s leaders who expressed such concern is the secretary of the Parti Socialiste (PS), Olivier Faure, who said: “A criminal must be condemned for his crimes, whether his name is Oumar, Francis, Michel, Emile, Guy or Patrice. Barbarism, perversion, and vice have neither skin color nor nationality. To use a heinous act to imply that immigrants are rapists is racist.”
Meanwhile, Éric Zemmour, the leader of the national-right party Reconquête, struck a different tone.
I dream of a France where a young woman does not risk ending up in coma after being robbed, raped, and horribly tortured by Oumar and the repeat offender in her own home. I dream of a France where what happened in Cherbourg, for this 29-year-old young woman who is currently fighting death, could no longer happen. I dream of a France where this massacre would not remain one francocide more, which only arouses general indifference. I will fight with all my might for this dream.
Jordan Bardella, president of the National Rally (RN), tweeted:
Not so long ago, the atrocious rape committed in #Cherbourg would have made the headlines. Today, the trivialization of horror relegates it to the status of a news item. Let’s not get used to it. Courage to the 29-year-old victim, umpteenth life shattered by the barbarism that is gaining France.
