Confused by a young student he was filming in the locker room of the Nemausa swimming pool, in Nîmes, Christophe was sentenced to 6 months in prison, suspended, on Friday May 13. At his home, the police found hundreds of videos and photos of women’s buttocks taken without their knowledge.
The 62-year-old pharmacist was arrested at the end of November 2021 by the departmental security police, after being caught filming under the door of a changing room in which a 20-year-old student was undressing. But when it’s time to change, Constance* quickly comes out to confuse the voyeur in the next cabin, and prevents him from deleting the video he’s trying to delete.
Dark suit, white shirt and graying temples, the elegant sexagenarian beats his neck at the correctional hearing of the Nîmes judicial court, Friday May 13, 2022. I want to apologize to the victim. Why this behavior totally disrespectful of social rules? How did I get here? My sessions with a psychologist revealed a drift towards a search for additional sexual excitement, when leaving confinementexplains the defendant. The context was very difficult for me to live with: after a burnout at the start of the year, confinement forced me to live away from my partner. But she still has my back, and I guarantee it won’t happen again! »
More than 300 stolen photos
The search of his computer by the investigators, however, revealed more than 300 photos and videos of naked women, in swimsuits or dressed in the changing rooms of the swimming pool or in the street. ” It is not the first time, points out the president, Elodie Dumas. You rather seem to collect images and videos of women’s anatomy, and in particular of their buttocks! That’s a lot though, isn’t it?»
The pharmacist seems a little embarrassed. ” To turn blurry videos into reasonably readable photos requires a number of different frames, which can seem like a lot, he tries to explain. But on the number there are a lot of images of adults, taken from authorized Internet sites, as well as those that I took blind myself. And on these, it is impossible to recognize the person, and I never intended to share them on social networks. »
“What is artistic in a fitting room? »
« Since they didn’t know, they weren’t victims? », interrupts the judge. The prosecutor agrees. ” You said you were more into aesthetics than perverts, can you explain to me what is artistic in a fitting room? “says Estelle Meyer. The sexagenarian remains speechless. ” No, I understand that it does not hold water he admits in a weak voice.
The student’s lawyer tries to tarnish the polished image of the 62-year-old pharmacist. ” Your ideal senior profile may also seem worrying, sirhe attacks. In addition, you have also come across an ideal victim, since, despite her trauma, Constance has found the courage to have you caught. But this woke up painful things in her since she is still regularly followed by a psychologist. She hopes that this judgment will allow her to move on. »
“There is not one, but probably hundreds of victims”
The prosecutor is asking for an 8-month suspended prison sentence against Christophe. ” We can understand the desire, the lack, it’s human. But taking perverse photos – because they are not artistic, or else you would have had to retrain yourself in photography and recruit models to do nudes – without consent, it is a violation of privacy which is prohibited by lawexplains Estelle Meyer. However, there is not a single victim, but probably hundreds! »
« My client is overwhelmed with shame, he could not imagine the impact this could have had on Constance. But neither are there hundreds of victims because many of the photos were taken on the Internet or in public places, and always for his private use.retorts the defendant’s lawyer, Hélène Mordacq. He went through a difficult time. But thanks to this procedure, the incongruity of his behavior struck him. I rarely step forward in the place of my clients, but here you can be sure that it is behind him. »
Pierre Havez
–
