Rape case ‘cruelty’ shocks France: Nation shocked as woman, 29, suffers perforated colon after being sexually assaulted and tortured with a broomstick by an 18-year-old
- Woman, 29, raped multiple times by assailant Oumar N., prosecutors say
- Oumar broke into the victim’s house in Cherbourg, where he tortured her with a broom
A 29-year-old woman was raped multiple times — sometimes with a 29-inch broom handle — and tortured by an 18-year-old man in a sickening case that has sent shockwaves through France.
The victim, who remains anonymous, was grabbed by the neck and repeatedly punched in the face and body by assailant Oumar N. after he broke into her home in the northwestern city of Cherbourg on Aug. 4, prosecutors say.
The horrified woman was thrown across the room and raped “several times” by the attacker, who also used the broomstick to sexually assault and torture her, reports Le Figaro.
The victim was left naked and in a bloodied mess on the floor of her apartment before she managed to reach her phone and call doctors who rushed her to Pasteur Hospital in Cherbourg.
The “barbaric” attack left the 29-year-old victim with horrific injuries, including a perforated colon, small intestine and diaphragm, as well as broken ribs.
A 29-year-old woman was raped multiple times — sometimes with a 29-inch broom — and tortured by an 18-year-old man in a sickening case that has sent shock waves through France (file image)
She is still in a coma, fighting for her life ten days after medics spent hours operating on her extensive injuries.
“Detectives are shocked, they have never seen so much barbarity,” a source familiar with the case told Le Figaro.
A few days after the “atrocity,” Oumar N. was arrested after police matched fingerprints on a door handle in the victim’s house with the 18-year-old’s and located his phone to the house at the time of the attack.
While questioned by police, sources said Oumar N showed “no emotion and no empathy” for the victim and had initially denied the attack before showing the fingerprints.
“He has a dangerous profile, he showed absolutely no emotion and no empathy for the victim,” a source familiar with the case told Le Figaro. “He showed coldness in police custody.”
Prosecutors said the sinister assailant, known to police for allegedly sexually assaulting his four-year-old sister, was charged on Saturday with “rape accompanied by torture or barbarism.”
The victim told police officers she had seen Oumar N. in Cherbourg before the attack but did not know him, Cherbourg-en-Cotentin’s prosecutor Pierre-Yves Marot revealed.
The attack she endured and the resulting injuries, including the perforation of parts of her abdomen and small intestine, have shocked medics and locals in Cherbourg.
Doctors and nurses who treated the victim when she first arrived at the hospital were reportedly so shaken by her injuries that some broke down and burst into tears. Psychological support is now being offered to the doctors, the police said France blue.
French politicians expressed outrage at the attack, with some on the far right blaming an apparent rise of “barbarism” in France for the rape.
National Rally president Jordan Bardella tweeted: “Courage to the 29-year-old victim, yet another life shattered by the barbarism France wins.”
French far-right politician Eric Zemmour, who became president earlier this year, wrote on Twitter: “I dream of a France where a young woman is not in danger of falling into a coma after being robbed, raped and horribly tortured by Oumar the repeat offender in her own house.’