A man was arrested in connection with the so-called “scooter rapist” case, reveals Dauphiné Libéré. Aged 22, he is suspected of having committed a series of rapes and sexual assaults in Grenoble during the month of March.
A man was arrested on Friday April 5, suspected of being behind a series of rapes and sexual assaults committed in Grenoble, reveals the Dauphiné Libéré. He is a young man aged 22 and living in Fontaine (Isère). He was taken into custody. It was an emergency DNA analysis carried out by a Lyon laboratory which made it possible to confuse the suspect in one of the “scooter rapist” cases, reports BFMTV. On March 29, a judicial investigation was opened by the Grenoble public prosecutor’s office concerning seven facts: an attempted rape, two rapes, a sexual assault, but also violence committed between February 8 and March 16. An eighth case could also be added to this list. On April 4, a woman who was attacked on the night of December 16 to 17, 2023, filed a complaint, believing she was also a victim of this attacker.
A complex investigation
Since the opening of the investigation carried out under the direction of an investigating judge, investigators have carried out significant work of cross-checking and investigations to achieve the arrest of a potential suspect. Always dressed in black and with his face partially masked, it was difficult for the police to trust the sketch drawn up after the victims’ testimony, the latter often being imprecise. Despite everything, a report clarified by the Grenoble public prosecutor, Éric Vaillant, had been widely distributed on social networks. “A 20-year-old man, European type, without accent, approximately 1.70 m tall and of normal build, even slightly plump, brown eyes, pale complexion and rather red hair,” we could read. It was ultimately thanks to the telephone tracing carried out at the times and locations of the attacks, as well as the brand of the scooter used by the attacker, that the investigators managed to establish a match with the description of the suspect.