France: Brave woman opens up about being raped by suspected murderer of 19-year-old student

Taha O, a suspect in the murder of a student, served jail time for raping a woman in 2019. He was released from prison a few days before the murder.

The macabre discovery of the half-buried body of Philippine Le Noir de Carla sent shockwaves through France. A 19-year student at Paris Dauphine University, her body was found in a park in Paris after she went missing on September 20. A 22-year-old Moroccan man, whom the French media is referring to as Taha O, was arrested in Geneva on suspicion of the murder. Now, a woman has come forward about the murder suspect raping her in 2019, asking, “Why did the prison service fail to stop this repeat offence?”

A migrant man, Taha O, raped a woman in 2019 and fled France. He was later arrested in Switzerland and subsequently jailed. (Pexels)

She has written an open letter to Agence France-Presse, the French press agency, to share her story and express outrage at the “perceived failures of the French state”, demanding a parliamentary inquiry, reported The Times.

What did the letter say?

“I would like the launch of a parliamentary inquiry into the prevention of repeat offending in cases of sexual and sexist crimes,” the woman who wasn’t identified wrote in her letter, cited The Times.

“I did everything possible so that what happened to me would not happen again. I filed a lawsuit so that the rape I suffered would be… recognised, so that my attacker would be found guilty and so that I would recognised as a victim. I held firm during a two-year investigation and trial, telling myself that this initiative would help to protect other women,” she reportedly added.

“Immediately after being freed, he appears to have offended again and committed an irreparable act. If that is the case, why? Why did the prison service fail to stop this repeat offence? Why didn’t they stop this spiral of violence that led to the murder of a young woman?” she added, describing her ordeal.

Jail time for rape and subsequent release of Taha O:

Taha O was given a seven-year jail sentence for raping the then-23-year-old woman in 2019. He fled France after committing the crime and was arrested in Switzerland.

He was reportedly released early from prison in June and placed in a detention centre for illegal immigrants. However, he was freed from detention on September 3, reportedly after Morocco failed to respond to French requests to “authorise his entry into the country.” Though Morocco delivered the authorisation three days later, by that time, Taha O had already vanished.

The survivor of rape reportedly expressed that the killing of the student left her “intensely sad”, and she is “confronted by the intolerable emptiness left by [Le Noir de Carlan’s] death”. She added, “Philippine could have been my sister.”