Paris: a bar manager tried for rape and sexual assault
A few months before the #MeToo explosion, the complaint of a woman for rape freed the speech of others claiming to be victims of the actions of a bar manager. The trial of this man opens this Monday before the Paris Assize Court.
The case begins on May 28, 2017. A young woman, a waitress in one of the night establishments managed by the 41-year-old accused, has just indicated a violation suffered a few hours earlier.
To the police, she explains that she celebrated a friend’s birthday in the bar where she works for “Fabio” and drank large quantities of alcohol without having eaten.
She remembers finding herself in the courtyard behind the establishment with her boss, that he led her to his office, laid her on a sofa bed. According to her statements, she wakes up while he is penetrating her.
By filing a complaint, she reported that another waitress had just left her job after an “incident” with “Fabio”.
Heard in turn, the latter denounces a sexual assault two months earlier, in the same bar. She claims that Wilfried Nkongo pulled her aside and forcibly kissed her while trying to slip a hand under her skirt, when she had consumed alcohol and cocaine.
Informed of the investigation, a third young woman asks to be heard. She denounces an assault more than a year earlier, in February 2016, still in the same cafe.
The manager denies
During the investigation, witnesses portray the manager as a “sexual predator”, regularly offering cocaine and ecstasy to his young waitresses or customers in the bar kitchen so that they are no longer “able to resist him”. .
Other employees note the “heavy behavior” of the respondent towards women, but say they have never seen forced kisses or touching.
Confronted with his accusers, Wilfried Nkongo confirmed his denials, arguing of a possible “agreement” between the suspects. He was indicted in July 2017 and spent around twenty days in pre-trial detention before being placed under judicial supervision.
Heard as a witness in March 2018, a fourth young woman denounced two sexual assaults a few months apart, the first dating from May 2016. She explained that she was afraid that before “his word would not be heard”.
Two other facts were denounced during the judicial investigation.
Wilfried Nkongo is accused of having raped another woman in July 2018, in his house in Var, while he was under judicial supervision.