INFO LE PARISIEN. After a two-year investigation, a professional firefighter from Gironde was charged on Thursday, having been identified by his DNA in two cases of rape and attempted murder on two women, right in the street, in Bordeaux.
Arrested at his home, this firefighter in his forties has been charged in Bordeaux in connection with two as yet unsolved cases: an attempted murder and a rape committed at gunpoint. He has been remanded in custody.
“Serious and consistent evidence implicating him” in the alleged offences, “despite his denials, has been gathered against him”, according to the Bordeaux Public Prosecutor’s Office.
“They stem in particular from both the scientific (DNA testing) and technical (mobile phone geolocation) investigations carried out, as well as from the victims’ statements and the findings of the search of his home,” stated the public prosecutor’s office, thereby confirming reports in the daily newspaper South-West.
Assaults involving the use of a knife
This arrest is the result of a thorough investigation carried out by officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Brigade for Combating Offences Against Persons (Brap).
In each case, the attacks were carried out by surprise, in the middle of the night. On 1 June 2017, a young woman was attacked from behind by a man who threatened her with a knife and tried to tighten a shoelace around her neck. As he fled, the attacker dropped the cord – a clue that did not immediately lead to the identification of a suspect but which would prove invaluable.
Six months later, on 2 December, another young woman was attacked by a man who forced her to perform oral sex at knifepoint before fleeing the scene. A suspect was arrested and then released, as the biological samples taken from the victim did not match those taken from the alleged attacker.
The investigation then established that the DNA of the rapist from 2 December is identical to that of the attacker from 1 June, according to a source close to the case.
The police then focused their investigations on several men who may have been at the scene of the attacks. A DNA test carried out on one of them – a firefighter with no previous criminal record – matched the biological profile of both attackers.
One of the victims positively identified him and, during a search, the police seized the scarf belonging to the rape victim.
The investigation, led by an investigating judge, will now focus on examining the firefighter’s character.