A French court has sentenced a 46-year-old man to 20 years in prison for being convicted of over thirty counts of rape, attempted rape, and sexual assault in a forest in the suburbs of Paris. The Paris Criminal Appeals Court upheld the same sentence imposed by the trial court in October 2020 for assaults committed between 1995 and 2000 against more than 30 women in the vast Sénart forest in the Essonne region, located 25 kilometers southeast of Paris.
The man, referred to by the press as the "Sénart Forest Rapist," instilled fear among park-goers for five years. He consistently wore a motorcycle helmet even during his sexual assaults and would draw the attention of passersby by claiming to have a malfunction with his bike. His identity was confirmed through DNA samples found on half of his victims.
Aissa Zerwati, a family man earning a living through simple jobs, was arrested in 2015 in connection to 34 cases of rape, attempted rape, and sexual assault, with aggravating circumstances since some of the victims were pregnant or elderly and were sometimes threatened with a weapon.
The prosecution had requested a 20-year sentence, insisting on the "overwhelming evidence" from DNA. Disturbing images were presented during the investigation showing women, some in their sixties or seventies at the time of the assaults, with swollen faces from beatings, bloodied mouths, or broken teeth, reflecting the "brutal" violence of the criminal, as described by one of the victims. The court's ruling included a social and judicial monitoring order and healthcare provisions for the convicted individual.
