An investigation has been launched in Paris after a young British woman claimed she was repeatedly raped by a taxi driver.
The tourist – who cannot be named for legal reasons – was found on Sunday morning “crying and in a state of utter fear” in the Bois de Boulogne, one of the French capital’s western suburbs. Police patrols were still searching for the driver on Monday, while also checking CCTV and interviewing potential witnesses. An investigating source said the alleged victim spent “an enjoyable night out in Paris on Saturday”, before leaving a group of friends and getting into a taxi.
But instead of being driven to her hotel, she was allegedly taken to the Rue de la Muette, a road in the centre of the Bois, where sex workers congregate in cars and vans until the early hours. Paris prosecutors supported by detectives from the city’s 1st Judicial Police opened a rape investigation on Sunday after receiving a phone call from the woman.
The source said she “escaped from the car after being repeatedly raped”, adding that she “ended up in the garden of a house in Neuilly-sur-Seine.” Neuilly, the upmarket Paris suburb, contains a number of houses with gardens bordering the Bois du Boulogne. The victim was treated for injuries by Paris emergency workers, and then taken to the Raymond Poincaré University Hospital nearby for further tests, and for police interviews.
Details of the alleged crime have been reported across France by outlets including Le Figaro and TF1. Visitors to the French capital regularly complain about the lack of regulated taxis, and are often forced to use the unregulated ones that roam the streets. There was no initial advice from police about the kind of taxi that had picked the young woman up, or a number plate.
In September last year, a 34-year-old British tourist told Paris police that she was raped after she was drugged by a man she met in a bar. The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was found by friends who reported her missing after a night out, also in the 16th arrondissement.
She told police that her next memory was waking up in an unfamiliar room, before realising she had been raped. The France-Scotland rugby match attracted a number of British visitors to Paris at the weekend, as did a number of concerts and other cultural events.
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