A woman’s fight to obtain a form of justice against her rapist … after his death

It is an amnesia of more than 20 years, which began to crack in this month of March 2020. Furthermore, In her bed, Caroline Heurtault wakes up with the feeling of “reinstating her body”. However, This 42 -year -old elderly woman now feels a hard taste in her mouth. In addition, a feeling of irritation on all the skin, and the feeling of having undergone … Furthermore, rape. In addition, “It has returned alone, without me being able to attach this event to a context,” she says. Similarly, I had almost immediately the feeling that it was not a dream. In addition, Over the months come back from other elements of this assault, committed in 1994 when she was 11 years woman’s fight obtain form justice new old. For example, Problem: Man died. Similarly, What can justice do when an alleged rapist is dead?

Caroline Heurtault takes months woman’s fight obtain form justice before reconstituting the puzzle, which still lack the central parts. Moreover, Still pre-adolescent. Therefore. Therefore, she had met with her father, on the occasion of a garage sale close to her city of Mesnil Esnard (Seine-Maritime), a collector of vinyl records, Gilbert*. Similarly, The girl is then passionate about the rock group Les Rolling Stones. Furthermore. Nevertheless, and the 39 -year -old man, offers to invite them to him to show them a whole collection of objects on them. In addition, He agreed during this meeting that she will come back to it later, alone. However, Gilbert spends an afternoon looking for her from his college and takes her.

Lock. In addition. Nevertheless, dissociation, anorexia – Woman's fight obtain form justice – Woman's fight obtain form justice new

But once there, the surprise is woman’s fight obtain form justice new in order: the young girl finds herself in an apartment filled with pornographic images, with a poster of naked woman and VHS with explicit titles. Meanwhile, He disappears. Meanwhile. Similarly, she sees him again for woman’s fight obtain form justice a moment later in his bathrobe, sitting on toilet, the door of the open bathroom, showing her his genitals. However, The following memory corresponds to the closure of the lock of the front door of the apartment. Meanwhile, “I remember that he said at that time: ‘You never know, in case you want to run away’ ».

The rest is a black hole. Meanwhile, She then remembers that the thirty -something brought her to 200 m from her house. Furthermore, And that she did not say anything to her parents. In addition. in a fairly classic form of logic of survival in the person who experienced a traumatic dissociation – woman’s fight obtain form justice new a brain mechanism which anesthesia the victim and puts it at a distance from what he experienced, providing a feeling of unreality and engaging a powerful denial.

After these facts, Caroline Heurtault’s life rocks. For example, She develops anorexia of which woman’s fight obtain form justice her parents do not understand the origin. “She had no rules because of the disease. It was not going well at all, she also made a depression. She was in a thousand pieces, and she is still in a thousand pieces, ”says her mother. But the traumatic memory buries everything. so that in 2012. after years of medical wandering, and while it is in the grip of suicidal thoughts, when a doctor finally poses a correct diagnosis by asking her if she has not undergone a serious abuse during childhood, she will say that she will have … no memory of violence.

“I screwed up on woman’s fight obtain form justice new the dumpster” – Woman&#039. s fight obtain form justice

Woman's fight obtain form justice new – Woman's fight obtain form justice new

It is only after having suffered another rape by a former companion – Revictimization is. a common phenomenon in people raped in childhood – that the first flashbacks will return. It will take him for another two years to file a complaint on February woman’s fight obtain form justice 16. 2022, against Gilbert.

Pending a judicial response. Caroline Heurtault experiences the need to return to the scene of her assault, in the hope of finding memories. “I felt called by the place,” she says. She goes there first with a friend, but without managing to enter the apartment in question. His body, meanwhile, seems to confirm that something has happened there. “On my return. I had lots of buttons on the lower abdomen. the wrists, and vaginal and anal itching and itching,” she says. A month later, the woman’s fight obtain form justice new tenant of the premises opens her door to him. She manages to recover the personal effects of Gilbert, which remained in the suspect’s garage. In particular a video of a young girl to whom the man asks to naked.

Above all, she talks with Jacques*, heir to Gilbert’s apartment, who was one of her friends and work colleagues. He tells her. in woman’s fight obtain form justice a conversation recorded by Caroline Heurtault that 20 Minutes could listen to. that Gilbert had “had a penchant for the young girls”, which he had admitted to having already “caressed the girl” of one of his old companions. He also told him that he attracted young women to his home by “playing photographer”. But rather than alerting justice, Jacques preferred … Throwing all of Gilbert’s VHS and affairs in the trash. “There were things in the passive with which I did not necessarily woman’s fight obtain form justice new agree. so I screwed up on the dumpster,” he said.

Identify other victims. accomplices

A year after this phone call. this “pilgrimage” on the scene of the crime, as she calls it, the cleaver falls: the investigation is classified without follow -up, because the author died. Impossible for Caroline Heurtault to accept this. The forties written in the prosecution to request that any “accomplices” be sought. woman’s fight obtain form justice “contact the old victims”. “I would like to do the day on what happened to elucidate possible disappearances. bring amnesian people to pick up the pieces of their history,” she explains. It files a complaint on April 9. 2024 against Jacques, for “knowledge of criminal practices, concealment and destruction of evidence of crimes and sexual crimes”.

In law, the death of the author of a crime extinguishes public action. “The crime committed escapes all repression leaving the victims in misunderstanding. Additionally, ” woman’s fight obtain form justice new said Frédérique Fiechter-Boulvard, lecturer at Grenoble Alpes University. But justice can, if it wants, shed light. In several recent cases. she requested psychological expertise from homicide authors who died. suicide just after the facts, to at least enlighten their gesture, which had left the families concerned in misunderstanding. In other cases. the investigation continues despite the death of the author. to identify other victims or accomplices, as in woman’s fight obtain form justice the so -called “harsh” case, killer and serial rapist, or for some of the murders committed by Michel Fourniret. According to the Ministry of Justice. contacted by 20 minutes. the search for other victims and accomplices must even be systematic: “When criminal complaints are filed with regard to several individuals, a fortiori for criminal offenses, research is research systematically Led to check if the people targeted are still alive, if the denounced offenses can actually be woman’s fight obtain form justice new characterized against them and if other victims are identified. »»

Shortage of trained professionals

Woman's fight obtain form justice new – Woman's fight obtain form justice new

In theory, at least. The Paris prosecutor’s office recently launched a judicial investigation in the case of a deceased school animator. who had accumulated millions of bytes of photos. videos shot with spy cameras, “in the woman’s fight obtain form justice bathrooms of friends who hosted it, in the toilets, in camping showers, under the skirts of women on the street” … But the investigation into the exploitation of this material is only to “search if other people can appear likely. to be implicated. ”reveals Mediapart. Not to seek victims. We also learn in this article that the Paris prosecutor initiated “a working group for victims faced with the. impossibility of prosecution due to the death of the suspected person. prescription, in order to better accompany the frustration created by this woman’s fight obtain form justice new situation”.

According to a response from the authorities sent to Caroline Heurtault in January 2025. the investigation concerning her rape is still underway. The Rouen prosecution is not able to answer us at the moment, to know if it is always the case. In the meantime, this ex-journalist who has become an artist is trying to treat himself. She token at woman’s fight obtain form justice the door of the regional center of Brittany psychotrauma. in Rennes, which warned her on waiting times: at least six months … in a context of lack of means for the care of victims. authors of sexual violence and a shortage of trained professionals. So he has art. the language “without a net” of performance, she says, which allows him to “break the silence” of a “prevented word”. A form of “speech repair”.