Hamilton case: statute of limitations on rape, the debate is restarted – ladepeche.fr

is there any extend the time of limitation for rape on a minor ? The debate has been revived after the allegations of Flavie Flament against the photographer David Hamilton, who was found dead Friday night.

The leader of 42 years, Flavie Flament, is said to be “devastated” by the news of this death, probably a suicide, while reiterating its accusations of rape against the photographer when she was 13 years old, and in reminding those of other women who are “forward with courage and emotion these last few weeks”. “It is to them that I think. Was this injustice that we were fighting together. By his cowardice, he again condemns the silence and the inability to see” convicted”, she says.

But the case could not, in any way not been determined, the supposed facts stretching back almost 30 years, while the period of limitation is 20 years for the rape of minors from the majority of the victim. This deprived the host of any hope of repair, and the photographer (who had protested his innocence) of any possibility of defence. This is based on the recurring question of a prolongation of this period, already arisen in the spring when accusations of pedophilia in the Church. On Tuesday, the minister, Laurence Rossignol (Family, Childhood and the Rights of women) announced that they have entrusted Flavie Flament a mission of consensus on limitation and prescription periods.

“we need to think about” the question of the statute of limitations of sex crimes against minors, had already estimated in mid-October the secretary of State in charge of Assistance to victims Juliette Méadel, explaining be seized of a case-by-children, or associations that defend and have been “very struck by this failure that they have, because of the time limitation to lodge a complaint”. Since 2004, the victims of sexual assault on a minor may bring a complaint up to their 38 years. But many voices plead for a prolongation up to 48 years.

“An element of traumatic breakage, hurts, we need that time,” says Ernestine Ronai, national coordinator of the inter-ministerial mission for the protection of women victims of violence (MIPROF).

at the Beginning of October, the High council for equality was proposed to better protect minors, who represent 60 % of the rape victims, establishing a threshold age, 13 years below which the non-consent is presumed, and of lengthening the periods of prescription of rape. Sexual assaults on minors are imprescriptible in Switzerland or in the United Kingdom. California has just voted for the statute of limitations of rape after the case Bill Cosby.